
Class _X-LST 

Book >W1Q^ 



GqjyrigM?- 



COPYRIGHT DEP03IT. 




THE OLD WAY OF SPINNING. 

The spinning wheel here represented was the property of Richard Ark- 
wright, and is now preserved in the South Kensington Museum, London. It is 
of a type first introduced about 1530. The thread of cotton or wool passes through 
an eye in the axis of the spindle and is subsequently wound on the bobbin which 
rotates on the same axis but at a different rate of speed. The rotation of the spindle 
twists and strengthens the thread, and the difference in speed of revolution be- 
tween the spindle and the bobbin results in winding the thread about the bobbin. 
The spinning wheel is still in use in many outlying districts of Europe, as suggested 
by the photograph of the Belgian peasant above presented. The even more 
primitive method of spinning with distaff and spindle, without the aid of a wheel 
— the spindle being rotated by the fingers, as shown in the lower figure — is also 
still extensively practiced by trie peasantry of various European countries. 



Jk 

Ingenuity and Luxury 



BY 



HENRY SMITH WILLIAMS, M.D., LL.D 



ASSISTED BY 

EDWARD H. WILLIAMS, M.D. 



NEW YORK and LONDON 

THE GOODHUE COMPANY 

Publishers - mdccccxi 



5 






/^ 



fib 



Copyright, 1910, by The Goodhue Co. 
Copyright, 191 1, by Thb Goodhue Co. 



A II rights reserved 



&*l.Sd 



■CI.A30914 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 

Dexterity of Hindu weavers, p. 6— Cotton-weavers of Mexico and 
Peru, p. 7 — Eli Whitney and the cotton-gin, p. 8 — Events leading 
up to the invention of the "saw-gin," p. io — Description of Whit- 
ney's first gin, p. n — Cotton at the mill, p. 13 — First steps in the 
manufacturing -process, p. 14 — The beginning of the spinning-proc- 
ess, p. 15 — Carding-machine of James Hargreaves, p. 16 — Prepar- 
ing wool for spinning, p. 18 — Hargreaves and the spinning- jenny, 
p. 21 — Possibilities of the spinning-jenny, and persecution of the 
inventor, p. 24 — Arkwright invents the water-frame, p. 25 — Ark- 
wright's early life, p. 26 — The tribulations of an inventor, p. 28 — 
Arkwright loses his patent on a legal technicality, p. 30 — Arkwright, 
the man, p. 30 — The invention of the mule, p. 32 — Precautions 
taken by Crompton to protect his invention, p. 33 — The self-act- 
ing mule, p. 35 — What these various inventions did for the cotton 
industry, p. 36. 

CHAPTER II 

THE MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILES 

Primitive spinning and weaving, p. 38 — How the Egyptians may 
have learned the art of weaving, p. 39 — John Kay and the flying 
shuttle, p. 42 — The development of the power-loom, p. 43 — Cart- 
wright's own story of how he came to invent the power-loom, p. 
45 — The power-loom perfected, p. 48 — The Jacquard loom, p. 40 
— Jacquard's factories destroyed by a mob, p. 50 — The Northrop 
loom invented, p. 51 — Finishing textile fabrics, p. 52 — Calico 
printing, p. 53 — Lace-making and knitting machinery, p. 55 — Rev. 
William Lee, inventor of the first knitting-machine, p. 56. 

CHAPTER III 

THE STORY OF COSTUMES 

Style of clothing developed by northern races, p. 59 — Military 
methods and fashion, two elements that determine types of cos- 

[Hi] 



CONTENTS 

tumes, p. 60 — Some curious fashions — and their explanation, p. 
61 — How the plagues affected fashions, p. 62 — The age of wigs, p. 
63 — The follies of fashion, p. 64 — The ruff, p. 65 — Legislation 
against the ruff, p. 66 — Knitted garments, p. 68 — Some remark- 
able costumes, p. 69 — Grotesque fashions of the Middle Ages, p. 
70 — Fashion versus comfort, p. 74 — The return of the common- 
sense age in clothing, p. 76 — The wholesale manufacture of cloth- 
ing, p. 78 — Impetus given by the American Civil War, p. 79 — The 
"task system" introduced, p. 80 — The "Boston" or "factory" 
system, p. 81 — Steam and electricity in factories, p. 83 — The man- 
ufacture of ready-to-wear garments for women, p. 85. 

CHAPTER IV 

THE SEWING-MACHINE 

What the sewing-machine has done for civilization, p. 87 — The 
sewing-machines of Weisenthal and Saint, p. 89 — The first prac- 
tical sewing-machine, p. 90 — American inventors enter the field, 
p. 91 — The coming of Howe, p. 93 — His early patents, p. 95 — 
Sundry improvements, p. 96 — The invention of Isaac M. Singer, 
p. 97 — The perfected machine and its conquest, p. 98 — Litigation 
over patents, p. 99 — Machines with interchangeable parts, p. 102. 

CHAPTER V 

CLOTHING THE EXTREMITIES 

How did the custom of wearing shoes originate? p. 103 — Early 
sandals and buskins, p. 105 — Barbarian shoes and Indian mocca- 
sins, p. 106 — Steel shoes, p. 107 — The rise of the shoe industry, p. 
108 — Early methods, p. no — Development of the factory system, 
p. in — The application of machinery, p. 112 — Automatic heeling- 
machines, p. 113 — Automatic lasting-machines, p. 115 — Lasts and 
patterns, p. 117 — Modern method of manufacturing shoes, p. 119 
— Gloves and gauntlets, p. 121 — How the custom of wearing gloves 
may have originated, p. 122 — Glove-wearing in the Middle Ages, 
p. 124 — The manufacture of gloves, p. 125 — First glove-makers 
in America, p. 126 — Early methods of manufacture, p. 127 — In- 
troduction of dies for cutting the leather, p. 128 — Effect of the 
Civil War on the glove industry, p. 129 — Block-cutting and table- 
cutting, p. 131. 

CHAPTER VI 

THE EVOLUTION OF THE DWELLING HOUSE 

Earliest known forms of dwellings, p. 133 — Remains left by pre- 
historic house-builders, p. 136 — The Swiss lake dwellers, p. 137 — 

fiv] 



CONTENTS 

Natural surroundings as a determining factor in the selection of 
building-material, p. 139 — Assyrian, Greek, and Roman architec- 
ture, p. 141 — How the primitive house was developed, p. 143 — 
First walled houses, p. 144 — Some Egyptian houses, p. 146 — The 
inside arrangement of a Greek house, p. 147 — English dwellings 
in the time of Alfred the Great, p. 148 — The invention of the 
chimney, p. 150 — Modern Turkish and Persian methods of heat- 
ing houses, p. 151 — The use of glass for window panes, p. 153 — 
Early use of whitewash and plaster, p. 154 — Ancient and mediaeval 
hinges, p. 156 — Early North American architecture, p. 158 — The 
revolutionary effect of modern methods of transportation upon 
building -material, p. 159. 

CHAPTER VII 

THE MODERN SKYSCRAPER 

The reason for building upper stories in early times, p. 162 — The 
opening of the era of high buildings, p. 163 — The steel frame, p. 
164 — The problem of heating, p. 166 — The first stoves, p. 167 — 
The first steam-heated building, p. 168 — The elevator or "lift," p. 
169 — Hydraulic water-balance elevators, p. 170 — Modern hydraulic 
elevators, p. 171 — The electric elevator, p. 172 — Safety devices 
on elevators, p. 173 — New tools and new methods, p. 175 — The 
pneumatic hammer, p. 176 — Some thought-provocative statistics, 
p. 178 — The Metropolitan Life Tower and the Singer Tower, p. 
179 — Wind pressure on a skyscraper, p. 180 — What is the limit of 
height to skyscrapers? p. 181. 

CHAPTER VIII 

ARTIFICIAL STONE, OR CONCRETE 

Concrete as used by the Romans, p. 182 — The manufacture of Port- 
land cement, p. 183 — Concrete blocks, p. 184 — Method of making 
concrete blocks, p. 185 — Proportions of materials used, p. 186 
— Mixing the material, p. 187 — Molding the blocks, p. 189 — The 
"curing" process, p. 190 — Facing the blocks, p. 192 — Utility and 
beauty, p. 193 — Reinforced concrete construction, p. 195 — Con- 
crete as a preservative of steel, p. 196 — Advantages of reinforced 
concrete, p. 197 — Experiments with steel embedded in concrete, 
p. 198 — Reinforced concrete water-pipes, p. 200 — Strength and 
durability of concrete, p. 201 — The resistance to earthquakes, p. 
202 — The reinforcing skeleton of metal, p. 204 — A modern con- 
crete building, p. 205 — Skilled carpenters necessary for proper con- 
struction, p. 206 — Details of a reinforced concrete skyscraper, p. 
208 — Absence of noise in reinforced concrete construction, p. 212. 

[v] 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IX 

FURNITURE AND FURNISHINGS 

The feudal chest, p. 213 — The first mediaeval chairs, p. 214 — Medi- 
aeval tables, p. 215 — The period of Renaissance,, and the begin- 
ning of modern furniture, p. 216 — The passing of hand-carving, p. 
217 — Pressed work and machine-carving, p. 218 — Machines that 
carve several duplicate pieces simultaneously, p. 220 — The effect 
of machine-carved furniture upon the market, p. 222 — Other in- 
genious tools used in furniture-making, p. 223 — Methods of pre- 
paring wood for veneer-making, p. 224 — How veneering is cut, p. 
225. 

CHAPTER X 

THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

Origin of earthenware, p. 227 — Early pottery -making in China and 
Japan, p. 229 — Introduction of glazed pottery in Europe, p. 230 
— The manufacture of pottery, p. 231 — The raw materials, p. 232 
— Chemical composition of clay, p. 233 — Blue or ball clay, p. 234 
— Mixing the constituents for making pottery, p. 235 — The use of 
cobalt, p. 238 — Mechanical Hungers, p. 240 — "Lawn boxes" and 
"finishing arks," p. 242 — The glaze and its preparation, p. 243 — 
The fritting process, p. 245 — Methods of making pottery by hand, 
p. 246 — The potter's wheel, p. 247 — The passing of the thrower, p. 
249 — The work of the turner, p. 251 — "Pressing" and "casting," 
p. 252 — Advantages of casting, p. 254 — Machines that make pot- 
tery, p. 255 — "Jolleys" and "Jiggerers," p. 256 — From clay to 
china, p. 260 — Filing the ware, p. 262 — The temperature at which 
the ware is usually fired, p. 264 — How the temperature is ascer- 
tained, p. 265 — Methods of applying the glaze, p. 266 — Glazing 
very cheap ware, p. 268 — Preparing the glazed ware for firing, p. 
269 — Decorating the ware, p. 271 — Methods of printing, p. 274 — 
Hand-painted ware, p. 275. 

CHAPTER XI 

GLASS AND GLASS-MAKING 

Origin of glass-making, p. 277 — Commercial importance of glass, 
p. 278 — Ancient glass-makers, p. 279 — A doubtful Roman tradi- 
tion, p. 281 — Window glass in the Dark Age, p. 282 — The com- 
position of glass, p. 284 — Qualities imparted to glass by the dif- 
ferent silicates, p. 285 — Source of silica, p. 286 — The process of 
manufacturing window glass, p. 287 — The glass-blower, p. 289 — 
How the cylinders are fattened, p. 290 — Plate-glass making, p. 
291 — Annealing the glass, p. 293 — 'Wire glass," p. 294. 

[vi] 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XII 

GEMS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 

Ancient and modern superstitions about gems, p. 295 — Confused 
nomenclature, p. 297 — Practical tests, p. 300 — Mohs' scale of hard- 
ness for gems, p. 301 — Methods of testing, p. 302 — Tables giving 
specific gravity of gems, p. 303 — The dichroscope, p. 304 — The 
cutting of precious stones, p. 305 — Bruting, polishing, and clean- 
ing, p. 306 — How gems are cut, p. 307 — Various forms of diamond- 
cutting, p. 310 — Cleaving precious stones, p. 310 — Strength and 
skill in diamond-cutting, p. 311 — Diamonds in the rough, p. 312 
— Various diamond-bearing earths, p. 313 — How diamonds were 
discovered in South Africa, p. 314 — Use of diamonds for mechanical 
purposes, p. 318 — The ruby and its allies, p. 319 — Montana sap- 
phires, p. 321 — "Spanish emeralds," p. 324 — Artificial gems, p. 
327 — Laboratory-made diamonds, p. 328 — How other artificial 
gems are made, p. 330. 



[vii] 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

the old way of spinning Frontispiece 

cotton-gins Facing p. 8 ^ 

COTTON BALING-PRESS " 12^ 

THE ORIGINAL CARDING-MACHINE " 16 

ARKWRIGHT'S IMPROVED SPINNING-MACHINE AND A 

MODERN MACHINE " 18 ^ 

ARKWRIGHT'S ORIGINAL DRAWING-FRAME ... 26 ^ 

ARKWRIGHT'S ORIGINAL SPINNING-MACHINE ... 28 ►' 

SIR RICHARD ARKWRIGHT 30 f 

SAMUEL CROMPTON 32 ^ 

OLD METHODS AND NEW IN SPINNING .... 36 ^ 

PRIMITIVE AND ADVANCED METHODS OF WEAVING . 4S 

MODELS OF A PRIMITIVE LOOM AND A JACQUARD 

LOOM 52^ 

THE EARLIEST SEWING-MACHINES 90 V 

EARLY TYPES OF SEWING-MACHINES 96 ^ 

EXCAVATING FOR THE FOUNDATION OF A SKY- 
SCRAPER " 162 V 

SKYSCRAPERS IN PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTION . . " l66 1^ 

THE TOWER OF THE METROPOLITAN LIFE BUILDING, 

NEW YORK, ILLUMINATED " 178 * 

A GROUP OF SKYSCRAPERS ON LOWER BROADWAY, 

NEW YORK " 1%QV 

HOW THE WORLD BELOW LOOKS FROM A SKY- 
SCRAPER " 206 if 

TIMES SQUARE, NEW YORK, AT NIGHT " 212 1^ 

THE POTTER'S WHEEL " 248 V 

"gathering" GLASS " 288 - 

GLASS-BLOWING 290 

GLASS-CUTTING 294 /- 

[viii] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 



INTRODUCTION 

CIVILIZATION is a synonym for artificiality. 
Man is not naturally adapted to live in any 
climate but a tropical one, and when he wil- 
fully invades the inhospitable temperate zone, he 
creates artificial needs that require artificial aids for 
their fulfilment. It is tolerably obvious how this ap- 
plies to food supplies — how the tropics supplied fruit 
to our primitive ancestor free for the taking, and how 
in the north he was obliged to become a fisher, a hunter, 
a grazer, and an agriculturist — in short a perpetual 
toiler forced to fight incessantly for the necessities of 
life. 

What is true of the food supply is even more tan- 
gibly true as regards man's fight with the elements. 
In tropical forests clothing is almost a superfluity, and 
even the crudest house is a luxury rather than a 
necessity. But for the inhabitants of temperate 
and arctic zones it becomes imperative to conserve 
the bodily heat by incasing the body in an artificial 
covering, and by supplying an artificial environment, 
which is best secured by the building of houses. The 
prime object of these artifices is to prevent too rapid 

VOL. IX. — I [ 1 1 

* L J 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

giving-off of heat by the body, through which the in- 
tegrity of the bodily machine would be threatened. 
Such is the end subserved by the coats of feathers and 
of fur with which man's confreres of the animal world 
are provided by Nature. Divested of this natural 
covering, man has no resource but to provide an arti- 
ficial substitute, or to take up his permanent abode 
in the tropics. 

The evolutionist assures us that the time was when 
man was provided with a natural, heat-conserving 
covering of hair; as also there was a time when our 
remote ancestor did not attempt to stray beyond the 
tropics. In this stage of his development man doubt- 
less neither felt the need, nor conceived the idea, of 
artificial clothing. It was only, we may suppose, when 
the wandering impulse — based probably upon the over- 
populating of his old environment — led him gradu- 
ally to seek new territories away from the Equator, 
that the new experience of changing seasons brought 
to the growing intelligence of our primitive ancestor 
the idea of artificial protection from the weather. 
That idea once grasped and put into execution, and 
combined with the kindred idea of producing warmth 
with an artificial fire, gave man the key that unlocked 
the hitherto closed doors of the North Temperate 
Zone. Provided with these ideas of conserving the 
heat of the bodily machine — though as yet far enough 
from understanding the real nature of his discovery 
— man entered upon the difficult but alluring pathway 
to the conquest of the world. 

When one reflects on the perpetual fight for life that 



INTRODUCTION 

man is obliged thus to wage against the elements, it 
seems strange indeed that a rational being should 
voluntarily subject himself to such a conflict. Yet 
all experience goes to show that strength comes only 
through exertion; that it is the very opposition of the 
elements that has developed man's intelligence. To 
supply the artificial needs which an unnatural envi- 
ronment has forced upon him, man has taxed his in- 
genuity; and the result is — civilization. 

In the present volume we are concerned primarily 
with man's struggle with the elements — with his at- 
tempts to protect himself from wind and weather, and 
to conserve the heat supplied him by the food he eats, 
and which is essential to his existence. We shall 
witness man's method of satisfying desires that have 
grown up in connection with the artificial life of a 
housed, clothed, comfort-loving resident of uncomfort- 
able climates. 

We shall have to do with the materials of houses 
and the methods of house-construction — from tent and 
cabin to the modern skyscraper. 

We shall consider also the materials with which 
man provides himself with an artificial body-cover- 
ing; the mechanical devices with which he makes 
wool and flax and cotton into cloth, and the varying 
plans he has followed in fitting this clothing about his 
person — in a word, the story of costumes. 

In all phases of this story of man's struggle with the 
elements we shall be concerned with the practical 
rather than with the esthetic. The latter, to be sure, 
cannot be altogether ignored, so closely is the task of 

[3] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

the artisan interwoven with that of the artist. But, 
in the main, it is the utilitarian world that confronts 
us. We have to do, for example, with domestic archi- 
tecture as a practical means of satisfying man's 
necessities and desires, rather than with architecture as 
a fine art; and we shall be concerned with the useful 
rather than with the esthetic aspects of clothing. Yet 
we shall perhaps be surprised to note how closely the 
two aspects of the subject are linked, and how generally 
estheticism waits upon utility. Moreover, we shall 
have occasion before we close to cross the border-line 
of the realm of mere utility, and to make excursions 
into the domain of art and luxury, following here the 
example set by man himself at all stages of his career, 
whether as savage, as barbarian, or as civilian. 



[4] 



I 

AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 

IT is difficult to say what substance was first used 
by primitive man for spinning — whether wool, 
cotton, or flax fibers — since all of these were 
used prehistorically. But the extensive and universal 
use of cotton is of comparatively recent date, and 
many of the remarkable inventions of machinery for 
spinning and weaving were designed primarily for 
using cotton fibers. Fortunately most of such imple- 
ments will spin and weave wool and hemp as well as 
cotton, using certain modifications that do not affect 
the general principle, and a description of the cotton 
spinning and weaving machines will suffice to give a 
general idea of all the rest. 

Just when cotton fabrics were introduced into Europe 
cannot be definitely determined, but it was certainly 
several centuries before the Christian era. It is proba- 
ble that such fabrics came first from India, where the 
cotton plant is indigenous. Herodotus, who wrote 
his history about the middle of the fifth century, B.C., 
refers to the cotton garments of the Indians; and we 
know that in Roman times cotton had become a standard 
article of importation from the East. This traffic with 
Europe disappeared largely in the [Dark Ages, but was 
revived again on the reawakening of Western Europe. 

[5] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

Many of the cotton fabrics woven by the natives 
of India were marvels of delicacy, and are still un- 
equalled by western weavers. Some of the India 
muslins were of such delicate texture that they "were 
scarcely perceptible if crumpled in the hand; and if 
spread upon the grass when dew was falling, soon be- 
came invisible," if we may believe the description of 
an Indian missionary. 

These muslins were hand-made, and although west- 
ern workmen have striven to equal them, they have 
never been able to approach them in delicacy. The 
explanation of this lies, perhaps, in the difference in 
the temperaments of Hindus and Europeans. The 
Hindus are remarkable for their acuteness of touch, and 
their hands are unusually flexible and delicate. This 
combination of qualities probably accounts for their 
superiority as fine weavers. But another element 
should not be overlooked in this connection; cotton- 
weaving had been practised in India for many cen- 
turies, or perhaps even millenniums, before Europeans 
began it; and successive generations of skilled work- 
men in any field are sure to become extremely expert 
in their work. This fact, quite as much as any phy- 
sical or temperamental differences in the races, may 
account for the Hindu weaver's remarkable dexterity. 

The increasing importations of cotton fabrics from 
India during the seventeenth century began to alarm 
Europe, particularly England, where they seemed to 
menace the wool-manufacturers. Parliament passed 
a bill in 1700 forbidding the importation of India 
goods; but as smuggling was easy, the traffic still 

[6] 



AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 

continued, and another act for a similar purpose, but 
still more stringent, was passed within a year of the 
first. As this did not have the desired effect, Great 
Britain adopted the more effective expedient of plung- 
ing into cotton- manufacturing herself; and although 
by the end of the century India was sending more 
cotton than ever to the British Isles, it was no longer 
as manufactured fabrics, but as raw cotton itself, to be 
woven into English cloth by English workmen and 
machinery. 

Before this time, however, America had become a 
source of cotton- supply and was rapidly growing in 
importance. Columbus had found cotton growing in- 
digenously in most of the lands he discovered, and 
Cortez and Pizarro had made similar discoveries in 
Mexico and Peru. In fact, the cotton garments of 
the Aztecs were of such fine workmanship, that the 
conqueror of Mexico sent home specimens of these 
to his sovereign, Charles V, as a gift suitable for a 
monarch. 

The cotton grown in the Western Hemisphere, how- 
ever, was not equal in quality to the Indian product. 
It was not the same species of annual herbaceous plant 
now universally grown in the South, but seems to have 
been a variety grown on shrubs or small trees. No 
attempt was ever made to cultivate these native plants, 
but seed of the Indian plant was sent over from Eng- 
land, and probably cultivated by the American colonists 
in Virginia about 1620. The first official record of 
cotton being cultivated in America, however, is given in 
a report of the colony of Virginia in 1621, where it is 

[7] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

mentioned among the other products. The climate 
of the South must early have appealed to the settlers 
as peculiarly adapted to cotton-raising, since the semi- 
tropical temperature, and relatively small amount of 
rainfall provided ideal conditions. Cotton-planters, 
therefore, began settling all through the southern dis- 
tricts, and by the time of the Revolutionary War 
cotton had become one of the staple American exports. 
Until the latter part of the nineteenth century, and, 
in fact, until the close of the Civil War, India more 
than held her own in the matter of cotton production. 
Since that time, however, cotton-raising in the South 
has advanced with such rapid strides that at present 
over sixty per cent, of all the cotton in the world is 
grown south of the Ohio River, and north of the Rio 
Grande. Over seven million people are occupied in 
handling this crop, which is valued at about $500,000,000 
annually; and something like seventy per cent, of 
the output is exported. 

ELI WHITNEY AND THE COTTON-GIN 

For many centuries the most tedious and difficult 
part of the cotton harvest was the separation of the 
seeds from the fibers, an operation called "ginning." 
The seeds stick to the cotton-fibers interwoven about 
them so tenaciously that by the old method of hand- 
ginning only a few pounds of cotton-fiber could be 
separated in a day by the workman. This was the 
great drawback to the use of cotton-fabrics, as a 
substance so difficult to harvest was proportionately 

[8] 





COTTON GINS. 



The lower figure is Eli Whitney's original cotton gin, made in 1793. 
The upper figure shows an English modification of Whitney's machine. 



AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 

expensive. But in 1793 the American, Eli Whitney, 
invented his cotton-gin, an implement which in its 
revolutionary effects has been little inferior to gun- 
powder itself. 

Whitney was born at Westborough, Massachusetts, 
December 6, 1765. As a boy he had shown great 
mechanical ingenuity, having inherited a taste for 
machinery from his father, who was quite a skilful 
mechanic in a small way. Even as a boy of twelve 
years, young Whitney made many ingenious con- 
trivances, among others a violin of fairly good shape 
and tone, and was recognized throughout his neigh- 
borhood as a boy possessed of unusual mechanical 
ingenuity. 

The story is told that while still a small boy he be- 
came possessed with the very common child's desire 
to take his father's watch to pieces. Feigning illness 
at church-time one Sunday, therefore, Eli stayed at 
home, the rest of the family going to their place of 
worship some little distance from the house. No 
sooner had the family departed than Eli's illness van- 
ished, and securing the watch left behind by his father 
he proceeded to take it to pieces. This part of the task 
was an easy one for any average boy; but Eli, after 
removing all the works, performed the more difficult 
one of putting them together again in proper order, 
leaving the watch running as before. 

During the Revolutionary War young Whitney was 
quite successful in manufacturing nails by an ingenious 
process of his own ; and afterward he engaged in the 
manufacture of hat-pins and walking-sticks. In 1789 

[9] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

he entered Yale College, and during his course of stud- 
ies there frequently astonished his tutors by his in- 
genuity in repairing the scientific apparatus used in the 
laboratories, and in making various kinds of appara- 
tuses of his own. Aside from this his college course 
was much the same as that of other students of corre- 
sponding age, although he became known as a vigorous 
and tireless worker. 

His good fortune began with an acquaintance with 
the family of Gen. Nathanael Greene, of Georgia. 
Having been offered a tutorship in a Georgia family 
in the neighborhood of the Greene plantation, Whitney 
journeyed south to take the position, only to find upon 
his arrival that the place had been filled. Under 
these circumstances he was glad to accept the hospi- 
tality of Mrs. Greene, taking up his residence for the 
time being at her home. Here he soon had an oppor- 
tunity of exhibiting his ingenuity. His hostess com- 
plaining one day that her tambour (a circular frame 
on which embroidery is worked) was unsatisfactory, 
and frequently tore her embroidery, Whitney offered 
to make her another, and soon produced a tambour 
far superior to any ever seen in the vicinity before. 
This, and some other ingenious devices, soon gave the 
young Yankee a reputation for ingenuity among the 
planters, and as a cotton-gin was the most needed 
implement in the region, he was urged by his hostess 
and her friends to attempt the invention of such a 
machine. 

At that time, Whitney had never seen a boll of cot- 
ton, and knew nothing whatever of the process of gin- 

[10] 



AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 

ning. He approached his subject, therefore, with the 
ignorance, but also the enthusiasm, of the novice. 
As an initial step he made a trip to the wharves at 
Savannah, and there succeeded in securing enough 
raw cotton for experimental purposes. A room in 
the Greene mansion was turned over to him for a work- 
shop, and he set about his task. A few months later 
the doors of his den were thrown open, disclosing his 
wonderful creation, the "saw gin." 

This remarkable machine consisted of a series of 
circular saws set close together on an axle, arranged 
so that they played between narrow slots in a comb- 
like piece of metal. As the cotton was fed to these 
saws, the fibers were seized and drawn down through 
the slots, which were too small to allow the passage 
of the clinging seeds. A series of revolving brushes 
on the opposite side removed the cotton fibers, deliv- 
ering them as fleecy cotton-down free from seeds, 
while the seeds rolled away into a receptacle made to 
receive them. By this machine, the work of a single 
man was increased at least a hundredfold, a day's 
work being no longer represented by the pound, but 
by the hundredweight. 

As the news of this successful invention spread 
among the planters, Whitney soon experienced the 
treatment that seems to have been peculiarly the fate 
of almost every early inventor connected with the 
spinning- and weaving-industries. The inventors of 
the spinning- jenny, flying- shuttle loom, and mule, had 
their machines broken or destroyed; Whitney's gin 
was stolen. The differences in the motives of these 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

similar acts of vandalism are in striking contrast. 
Whitney's gin was stolen by planters for use in hasten- 
ing their work; Hargrave's and Kay's spinning- and 
weaving -machines were destroyed by mobs of work- 
men because they worked too fast. 

Nevertheless, Whitney succeeded in bringing his 
specifications before the proper authorities and secured 
his patents. Later he returned to New Haven, Con- 
necticut, and opened a factory for manufacturing his 
machines. Congress finally voted him $50,000; but 
as he became involved in litigation over his patent for 
several years, he realized, in the end, little or no finan- 
cial gain for his great service to mankind. This is the 
more deplorable as his title as sole inventor seems to 
stand undisputed, and as his gin has proved such a boon 
to civilization — "more important in the history of the 
United States than all of its wars and treaties," as an 
English admirer of Whitney said a century later. How 
completely the inventor had solved the problem from 
the very first is attested by the fact that the modern 
gins used on American plantations are still of the Whit- 
ney type, very slightly modified. 

When the cotton comes from the gin it is taken imme- 
diately to the presses and pressed into bales weighing 
about five hundred pounds. From these it is passed 
on to the "compressor," where it is still further re- 
duced in bulk by enormous pressure ranging from one- 
thousand to fifteen hundred pounds to the square inch, 
the thickness of the bale being reduced to about four 
feet, six or seven inches. It is then secured with half a 
dozen iron hoops, and is ready for shipment to the mills. 

[12] 




COTTON BALIXG-PRESS 



This form of press for compressing ginned cotton into bales is so arranged 
that the bales can be securely bound while under pressure. 



AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 

In recent years the Americans have introduced a 
new system of baling, the cotton being pressed into 
flat layers, and rolled into cylindrical bales instead of 
the time-honored angular form. Such bales are made 
about four feet long and two feet in diameter, and 
weigh in the neighborhood of four hundred pounds 
each. It is claimed for this form of bales that they 
are more easily handled, can be packed more closely, 
and are both fireproof and waterproof. 

COTTON AT THE MILL 

There are various kinds and qualities of raw cotton, 
dependent upon the length and nature of the individual 
fibers themselves. Some cottons, such as the Sea 
Island, are composed of long, delicate fibers, while 
others have short, coarse fibers and are much less 
valuable. The gap between the very best and the 
poorest kinds of cotton is so great that no attempt is 
made to strike a general uniform average in such cottons 
by mixing; but in the intermediate varieties this mix- 
ing process is practised universally, and is the first 
process to which the raw cotton is submitted at the 
mills. 

The quality of each bale of cotton as it comes to 
the factory is determined by microscopical examina- 
tion of a certain number of fibers which are taken from 
different parts of the bale. This is particularly nec- 
essary where bales come from the smaller farmers, in 
which the products of several different pieces of land 
may be represented in each bale. 

[13] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

The older method of mixing was to place successive 
layers of cotton from each of the bales in a pile, and 
then pull and mix them by hand. In recent years, 
however, machines known as " bale-breakers" or "cot- 
ton-pullers" have been invented to take the place of 
the more primitive method. These machines consist 
of several pairs of rollers, either fluted or carrying 
coarse spikes, which pull and mix the cotton. Thorough 
mixing is obtained by feeding the cotton from the sev- 
eral bales into the machine at the same time. 

After leaving the mixer the cotton goes at once to 
the "opener," a machine which loosens the fibers and 
shakes and blows out any foreign matter in the form of 
grains of sand, seeds, leaves, etc., that are sure to have 
crept in during the process of gathering and shipping. 
The cotton is spread in a uniform layer on the feeding- 
table of the machine, from which it is taken by the 
feed-rollers and carried within reach of a cylinder fitted 
with projecting teeth, and known as the "beater." 
This cylinder revolves at a rate of a thousand or more 
revolutions a minute, and quickly loosens the fibers as 
they come into contact with the teeth; while at the 
same time a strong draught of air is blown through 
the cotton, still further loosening any particles of foreign 
matter that may cling to it. It may pass over several 
of these beating-cylinders, and blowing -machines, be- 
fore it finally emerges from the machine in the form of a 
"lap" — a flat layer or sheet of cotton — and is wound 
upon a cylinder. 

From these cylinders it is fed to the "scutcher," 
which is really a modified form of opener. In this 

[14] 



AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 

machine the cleaning-process, by means of beaters and 
currents of air, is continued and repeated, if necessary, 
until every trace of foreign matter is removed, and the 
cotton-fibers are thoroughly loosened. 

From the scutcher the cotton goes to the carding- 
machine, perhaps the most important of all those 
through which it has passed since leaving the gin. In 
the carder the last remaining particles of impurities 
are removed, defective fibers are plucked out, and the 
tangled fibers from the lap are combed into parallel 
order. 

In the raw cotton, as it comes fron the scutcher, 
there are many imperfectly developed fibers which are 
found about the seeds in the boll, and which are mixed 
with the perfect fibers in the ginning. There are also 
imperfect fibers from other causes in the cotton, which, 
if allowed to pass the card and be spun or woven, 
would make defective threads and consequently poor 
material. These are all removed in the carding- 
machine, along with bits of leaves and seeds that may 
have escaped the other machines. But although this 
removal is a necessary function of the carding-machine, 
its use, primarily, is to comb the fibers into paral- 
lel rows — the beginning; of the actual process of 
spinning. 

Carding by hand, as performed before the invention 
of the rotary carding-machine, was done by means of 
ordinary hand-cards — pieces of boards covered with 
leather, from which bristled thousands of short wires, 
like needles protruding from a cushion. These needles 
grasp and separate and make parallel the fibers, just 

[15] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

as a wire hair-brush, which is simply a modified hand- 
card, smooths the hair. 

The first improvement over this simple method of 
carding was made by James Hargreaves, the inventor 
of the spinning-jenny, of whom we shall have occasion 
to speak more fully in a moment. He arranged sets 
of cards by suspending them so that the amount of 
work performed by a workman was doubled. A 
little later, in 1762, he was employed by the statesman, 
Robert Peel, to construct a carding-machine, which he 
finally completed in the form of a cylinder bristling 
with wire teeth. This machine worked in a most 
satisfactory manner, and is the true parent and pro- 
totype of the elaborate carding-engines in use at the 
present time. Various modifications and improve- 
ments were made in this machine from time to time, 
but the original principle of the carding-cylinder has 
been retained in all subsequent machines. 

The layer of cotton enters the carding-engine as a 
lap of cotton with fibers lying indiscriminately in all 
directions, passes over successive cylinders designed 
for certain definite purposes, becomes a thin cloudlike 
film of cotton fibers lying approximately parallel and 
free from all foreign particles, and finally emerges 
through a conelike opening in the form of a white 
strand, or "sliver "as it is called, composed of untwisted 
cotton-fibers. From this funnel-shaped tube the sliver 
is automatically coiled in a can placed to receive it, 
and is then ready to be sent to the drawing-frames. 

As the slivers from the carding-machines reach the 
drawing-frames the fibers forming them, while approx- 

[16] 




THE ORIGINAL CARDING MACHINE. 



This is Arkwright's original carding machine, the predecessor of all carding 
machines of the present day. It is preserved in the South Kensington Museum, 
London. This machine was made about the year 1775. It is very similar to 
the cylindrical carding machine invented and constructed by Daniel Bourne of 
Leominster in 1748. The object of the machine is to remove from the cotton 
any fragments of leaves, sticks, etc., and also to straighten out the fibres by a comb- 
ing action. This is accomplished by small wire teeth fixed in large leather strips 
upon three cylinders. The cylinders are arranged horizontally with their axes 
parallel and are rotated at different speeds. 



AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 

imately parallel, as just stated, are not sufficiently so, 
nor distributed with the necessary uniformity, to be 
used immediately for making yarn. It is the 
function of the drawing-frame, therefore, to per- 
fect the arrangement of the fibers and to combine a 
certain number of slivers, usually six, into another 
"rove" of cotton, which has the general appearance 
of the original sliver. The perfecting of the parallel 
arrangement of the fibers is done by the ingenious 
arrangement of pairs of rollers, each successive pair 
acting a little more rapidly than the preceding, and 
thus "pulling into line," as it were, the successive 
fibers. This type of machine was first devised by 
Sir Richard Arkwright, whose invention will be de- 
scribed more fully presently. 

Up to this point the machines engaged in handling 
the cotton have been employed in preparing it for the 
final twisting into strands and threads, rather than in 
actually preparing such threads. But on emerging 
from the drawing-frames, it goes to a series of three 
more frames, which still further draw out the cotton, 
and wind it upon bobbins. In the first of these ma- 
chines, or slubbing-frame proper, the end of the sliver 
is seized by rollers, twisted and wound upon bobbins 
which are then transferred to the intermediate frame. 
This is a machine built on practically the same general 
principles as the slubbing-frame, in which the two 
strands of the bobbins from the slubber are wound 
into one. The last of these series of machines is one 
known as the roving-frame, in which the cotton yarn 
is still further twisted and reduced in size. 

VOL. IX. — 2 L I ^ ] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

This, in brief, is the process of modern spinning. 
It is subject to many modifications, however, and the 
machinery used is so complicated that it is difficult to 
understand from any description, even if fully illus- 
trated. Probably an account of how the various 
machines were developed will convey a better idea 
than a detailed description of the machines themselves 
in their present complicated form. Before we turn to 
this, however, we must examine briefly the processes 
by which that other chief textile-material, wool, is pre- 
pared for the spinner. 

PREPARATION OF WOOL FOR SPINNING 

Though certain breeds of sheep produce far superior 
wool to others, not all the wool of any sheep is of first- 
grade quality. In fact, the best fleece of any sheep 
comes from a narrow strip along either flank of the 
animal, extending from just in front of the shoulder 
to a point in front of the hip. From this finest quality 
of wool, coming from the side of the animal, there is 
a gradual falling off in quality toward the other parts of 
the body, until the product about the head and legs 
becomes so coarse and stiff that it is more like hair 
than wool. 

An important part of the wool-manufacturing in- 
dustry is the sorting or stapling, separating the wool 
into lots of uniform quality. This work is done by 
skilled workmen who have learned by long experience 
to determine almost instinctively the exact quality of 
each bunch of wool handled. The stapler usually 

[18] 




arkwright's improved spinning machine and a modern machine. 

The lower figure shows an improved Arkwright machine made about 1775. 
Its principle of action is precisely that of his earlier machine, but it has an arrange- 
ment for guiding the yarn over the bobbins evenly, and it contains more spindles. 
The upper figure shows a modern ring-spinning frame. This is a shortened ex- 
ample having only 48 spindles. In a complete frame, as used in a cotton factor}'-, 
there would be about 400 spindles. 



AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 

works at a frame covered with wire-netting which al- 
lows the dirt and dust to fall through, picking out the 
separate qualities and throwing them into the proper re- 
ceptacles. He also removes all foreign substances such as 
straws or burrs, so that each particle of wool as it comes 
from his table is practically free from coarser fragments. 

When thus sorted, the wool is ready for scouring. 
This is a very important process, and the quality of 
the resulting manufactured product, such as the taking 
of the dye colors evenly, is largely dependent upon the 
careful and complete manner of doing it. The water 
used should be pure and soft, and the soap of good 
quality, or the resulting product will be rough and harsh 
to the touch, and take the dyes unevenly. The older 
method was to place the wool in hot soap-suds in a 
large vat, keeping it stirred constantly with long poles 
until the grease was dissolved and the dirt thoroughly 
separated. It was then drained, washed with a stream 
of water, and dried. Many substances were used in 
the place of soap, but in recent years a specially pre- 
pared potash soap is used almost exclusively. The op- 
eration is now hastened by mechanical means, and a 
much smaller quantity of soap used than formerly, by 
first steeping the wool in pure water, or by blowing 
steam through it. This not only removes mechanical 
impurities, but softens the fibers and hastens the scour- 
ing process. The wool is then passed on to machines 
that agitate it gently so as not to ball it, and it is finally 
squeezed between rollers and sent to the dyeing- 
machines. 

This is also a delicate process, which must be done 

[19] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

gradually and uniformly if the best results are to be 
obtained. Sometimes this dyeing is done by centrifu- 
gal machines, but other kinds of machines are used, 
most of which keep the wool spread and turned evenly 
in a chamber heated to the proper temperature. But 
even after the most careful dyeing the wool is still 
matted, and must be opened and brought to a loose 
and free condition. This is done by passing it through 
a series of rapidly revolving drums set with spikes and 
so arranged that, as the various drums revolve in oppo- 
site directions, the spikes of one just clearing those 
of its neighbor, the wool is teased and becomes dis- 
entangled, light, and fluffy. 

The natural wool contains quite a high percentage 
of a peculiar oil, called the "yolk" or "suint," which 
is removed by the action of the soap-suds in the scour- 
ing process. This leaves the wool harsh and wiry, 
and some oily substance must be added to make it 
properly soft and elastic, and also to make the fibers 
more adhesive so that a more level and finer yarn can 
be spun. The application of the oil must be abso- 
lutely uniform, and the quantity just sufficient to soften 
the fibers without excess or waste. To do this the wool 
is placed in machines that carry it in thin layers to a 
spraying aparatus, which sprays it uniformly with 
oleine, olive oil, or lard oil. 

One more operation is necessary before the wool is 
ready for spinning or weaving, this being the blending 
either of different qualities of wool, or with cotton or 
other fibers. This is done in much the same manner 
as in blending cotton, separate layers being passed 

[*>■] 



AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 

over each other, and then thoroughly teased until a 
uniform blend is obtained. 

From this point onward the process of manufacture 
is practically the same for wool as for cotton. The 
various spinning-machines and looms are practically 
the same, modified in details for certain purposes, and 
need not be considered separately. The story of the 
development of these machines centers about the cot- 
ton industry; but what is said of the manufacture of 
this textile applies equally, with certain modifications 
as to details, to the sister textile as well. We may 
note here, however, that wool is habitually worked into 
two quite different types of yarn, known respectively 
as "worsted" and " woolen" yarn. In worsted yarns 
the fibers are long and lie nearly parallel with one 
another, so giving the material a smooth surface. The 
fibers of woolen yarn, on the other hand, lie in all 
directions, with many loose ends projecting so giving 
a rough surface. But cloth woven from these rough 
fibers, when felted or milled, presents a smooth and 
even surface, concealing the individual threads, owing 
to the interlacing of the individual fibers during the 
milling process. The difference in texture between 
worsteds and woolens as presented in the finished goods 
is familiar to every one. 

HARGREAVES AND THE SPINNING-JENNY 

For over a century England has been the center of 
cotton- and wool-manufacture of the world; the revo- 
lutionary inventions of her sons have given her this 

[21] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

position. Yet the treatment accorded these inventors 
by fellow Englishmen makes anything but creditable 
history. Official England, to be sure, stands in a bet- 
ter light in these matters ; and the English Government, 
as is usual in such cases, did well by the gifted inven- 
tors. But little can be said of the English workingmen 
who mobbed John Kay for inventing the flying-shuttle 
which revolutionized weaving; drove out of the country 
James Hargreaves because he had invented his spin- 
ning-jenny with which one man could perform the work 
of many, and destroyed the factories of Sir Richard 
Arkwright, the inventor of the spinning-frame. When 
we reflect that the inventions of Kay, Hargreaves, and 
Arkwright eventually gave England her exalted posi- 
tion in the manufacturing world, the action of the 
ignorant mobs of workmen, sometimes observed, but 
not interfered with, by officials, seems the more 
inexcusable. 

In 1858, Mr. Cole, in a paper read before the British 
Association, attempted to show that the first inventor 
of a spinning-machine was one Lewis Paul, of Bir- 
mingham, who made such an invention in 1738. In 
this paper Mr. Cole brought some striking evidence 
in support of his belief that Paul's invention acted by 
means of rollers on something the same principle as 
Arkwright' s spinning-frame, invented thirty years 
later. 

There is no question, however, that the machine 
which came to be known as the spinning-jenny was the 
invention of James Hargreaves and of him alone; 
and this machine must be credited with being the first 

[22] 



AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 

practical mechanical device for performing the same 
work as the ancient spinning-wheel. Hargreaves was 
an illiterate and humble weaver living at Standhill, 
near Blackburn, in England, and the story is told that 
he first conceived the idea of his spinning-machine 
by observing an overturned wheel and noticing that 
the spindles seemed to work as well in the vertical 
position as in the horizontal. Experimenting along 
the lines suggested by this idea, he finally constructed 
a machine consisting of a frame containing a number 
of vertical spindles and actuated by a wheel turned 
by hand, upon which he was able to spin about a dozen 
threads simultaneously in the same length of time, 
and with no greater effort than was required to spin 
a single thread by the old method. The first patent 
was taken out for this machine in 1770, Hargreaves 
constantly adding improvements to his device, until 
he was able to spin as many as thirty threads as easily 
as a single one. 

Hargreaves describes his patent as covering "a 
method of making a wheel or engine of an entire new 
construction, and never before made use of, in order 
for spinning, drawing, and twisting cotton, and to be 
managed by one person only, and that the wheel or 
engine will spin, draw, and twist sixteen or more threads 
at one time, by a turn of motion of one hand, and a 
draw of the other." The following is his description 
of the process: "One person, with his or her right 
hand turns the wheel, and with the left hand takes 
hold of the clasps, and therewith draws out the cotton 
from the slubbing-box ; and, being twisted by the turn 

[23] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

of the wheel in the drawing out, then a piece of wood 
is lifted up by the toe, which lets down a presser-wire, 
so as to press the threads so drawn out and twisted, 
in order to wind or put the same regularly upon the 
bobbins which are placed on the spindles." 

The description is not very intelligible to one who has 
not seen a model of the machine, — particularly as most 
persons nowadays are unfamiliar with the process of 
spinning which was an every-day practice in all ordi- 
nary households at the time when the spinning-jenny 
was invented. It will perhaps aid in understanding 
the process to explain that the entire method of re- 
ducing cotton to a spun thread consists in drawing out 
the fibers until they are practically parallel and then 
twisting them so that they cling tightly together. In 
primitive spinning the drawing process was accom- 
plished by hand, and the final twist given by a revolving 
spindle. Hargreaves' invention did not change the 
principle but only made it possible for the operator 
to manipulate several or numerous threads at once. 
A revolutionary method of effecting the same ends was 
introduced by another inventor soon after the intro- 
duction of the spinning-jenny as we shall see in a mo- 
ment. But first we must follow the fortunes of the 
spinning-jenny itself. 

As soon as the wonderful possibilities of this new 
machine became known among the cotton-workers 
in the neighborhood, Hargreaves' shop was attacked, 
his spinning- jenny destroyed, and the inventor driven 
from his home. Fleeing to Nottingham Hargreaves 
again constructed his spinning-machines, the merits 

[24] ' 



AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 

of which were finally appreciated, the inventor being 
recognized as a great benefactor to mankind. 

But like most pioneer inventions in new fields, the 
spinning-jenny was defective in many ways. Only 
certain kinds of thread could be spun on it, and the 
cotton rove, or film of cotton fibers from which the yarn 
is spun, had to be carefully carded before it could be 
used. But even with the greatest care it was impossi- 
ble to spin yarn or threads strong enough to act as 
warp, the thread as made by the spinning- jenny being 
only suitable for weft. 

As most people are unfamiliar with the exact mean- 
ing of the terms "warp" and "weft," it should be ex- 
plained that in weaving, a certain number of threads 
lying parallel and running longitudinally are first 
fastened into the weaving-frame. The threads are 
known as warp-threads. In the process of weaving 
other threads are passed alternately over and under 
these longitudinal threads, row after row, until the 
cloth is completed. These transverse threads are 
called the weft, and it is obvious that such threads 
need not necessarily be so strong as the warp-threads. 
It was only these weft threads and not the warp, that 
could be spun upon Hargreaves' spinning- jenny. 

ARKWRIGHT INVENTS THE WATER-FRAME 

The machine that finally solved the problem of 
making warp-thread was the creation of Richard 
Arkwright, barber, hair-dyer, and man of inventive 
genius, of Preston in Lancashire. Arkwright was 

[25] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

born in 1732, the youngest in a family of thirteen 
children. Having little education and being extremely 
poor, he was apprenticed as a boy to a barber; later 
on becoming master of a shop of his own. Having a 
naturally inventive turn of mind he devoted much of 
his time to experimenting in various fields, finally 
succeeding in producing a chemical process for dyeing 
hair which produced him sufficient income to allow him 
to devote more of his time to various inventions which 
he had conceived and partially developed. 

Living, as he did, in the cotton-manufacturing dis- 
trict, he was probably familiar with Hargreaves' spin- 
ning-jenny, and if so he was certainly aware of its de- 
fects. It is certain, at any rate, that his inventive 
efforts were along entirely different lines from those 
pursued by Hargreaves in his machine. In 1769 he 
took out his first patent for spinning by means of 
rollers, and soon after perfected a machine with which 
he was able to spin a great number of threads at any 
desired degree of thinness or hardness. 

In this " spinning-frame," or " water- frame" as it 
was called, there were two pairs of rollers, set hori- 
zontally and parallel, like the rollers of a wringer. 
The lower roll of each pair was furrowed or fluted 
longitudinally, while the upper rollers were covered 
with leather to make them take hold of the cotton. 
If both these pairs of rollers are revolved at the same 
speed and a rove of cotton passed through them, it 
is obvious that aside from the compression given by 
the rollers, no change will be produced. If, however, 
the second pair of rollers is revolved more rapidly than 

[26] 




arkwright's original drawing frame. 

This is Sir Richard Arkwright's first drawing frame and was 
made by him about 1780. It was commonly known as the "lan- 
tern" frame, owing to the fact that the sliver-tan employed has 
an opening in the side closed by a door through which the sliver 
was removed, and so somewhat resembles a lantern. The process 
of drawing is accomplished by passing the wisp of cotton fibres 
through two pairs of rollers that nip it, the second pair revolving 
more quickly than the first. The distance between the two pairs 
of rollers is rather more than the length of the fibres, so that the 
drawing only slides the fibres upon one another without stretching 
or breaking. 



AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 

the first, it is obvious that the rove of cotton will be 
stretched and pulled to any desired degree of tenuity 
according to the relative speed of the t 
This was the principle upon which Arkwrigbt's spin- 
ning-frame worked, and as the necessary twist was 
given the threads by an adaptation of the spindle and 
fly of the common flax -wheel, perfect threads could 
be manufactured very rapidly. 

Here was a complete departure in principle from any 
method of spinning attempted heretofore, unless the 
doubtful claim of Lewis Paul be recognized, and its 
simplicity and practicality at once appealed to pen 
interested in cotton manufacture. The idea of uti- 
lizing rollers for spinning was said by Arkwright him- 
self to have been suggested to him by seeing red- 
hot iron bars elongated by being passed between 
rollers. 

Profiting by Hargreaves' experience with the lawless 
mobs of Lancashire, Arkwright took his invention 
to Nottingham, where he attempted to interest some 
capitalists in establishing a factory. For some little 
time he was unsuccessful, but finally a Mr. Strutt, 
of Derby, becoming convinced of the possibilities of 
the spinning-frame, assisted the inventor in construct- 
ing his first mill at Nottingham . horse-power being used. 
While this experiment showed that the spinning-frame 
was capable of performing an extraordinary amount 
of work, the power for running the factory proved so 
expensive that in 1771 Arkwright constructed a new 
mill at Cromford, this mill being run by water-power, 
and for this reason his invention came to be known as 

[27] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

the " water-frame." Later on its modified form was 
given its present name, " throstle." 

Thus far Arkwright had escaped the lawless mobs 
of English workmen ; but as his business ventures pros- 
pered he invaded the enemy's country, and built a 
mill at Birkacre in Lancashire, the home of machine- 
breaking mobs. He was soon treated to the same ex- 
periences as the earlier inventors, Kay and Hargreaves 
— his mill and machines were destroyed by a mob. 
What made the act the more disgraceful was the fact 
that a large body of police and military witnessed this 
wanton destruction of valuable property, and tacitly 
showed their approval by not attempting to check it. 
Unlike the two other unfortunate inventors, however, 
Arkwright's financial position was such that the loss 
of one mill had little effect upon his prosperity. 

THE TRIBULATIONS OF AN INVENTOR 

But meanwhile a formidable enemy was preparing 
to attack him. This was a body of men composed of 
the great cotton-manufacturers, who formed a " com- 
bine" for the purpose of wresting from him the rights 
to the patents of his spinning-frames. These manu- 
facturers were not content to sit calmly by and see 
Arkwright prosper by producing better products for 
less money than they themselves could unless they 
paid him a royalty for the use of his machines. 

Twelve years after taking out his first patent, there- 
fore, Arkwright was called into court to defend his 
rights. The case was tried in the Court of King's 

[28] 




arkwright's original spinning machine. 



This machine, made by Sir Richard Arkwright in 1769, shows his first appli- 
cation of drawing rollers to cotton spinning. The roving, wound upon bobbins 
placed at the back of the frame, was led successively through four pairs of rollers, 
each pair revolving more quickly than the preceding pair, so as to draw out the 
cotton to a finer thread. The last pair was rotated more than six times as fast as 
the first. The motive power originally used with this machine was that of a horse. 



AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 

Bench, in July, 1781, and a decision was given against 
the inventor on the ground that "the descriptions of 
the machinery in the specifications were obscure and 
indistinct." At that time no attempt was made to 
show that Arkwright was not the inventor, or that his 
spinning-frames were not the kind described in the 
specifications. This is significant in the light of later 
developments as we shall see in a moment. 

In defending his position, the inventor explained 
that the obscure passages were purposely inserted to 
mislead foreigners who might wish to pirate his ma- 
chines. And this seems entirely plausible in view of 
the fact that hundreds of workmen were familiar with 
the spinning-frame at the time of taking out the patent, 
so that any obscurity or deception could have been 
easily detected by an Englishman, although it would 
have been more difficult for a foreigner not having 
access to the mills, who must have been guided simply 
by the specifications. 

There is perhaps another explanation of this indefi- 
niteness of Arkwright's specifications. It will be re- 
called that the inventor was an illiterate man, and 
although he greatly improved this defect in his early 
training later on, he had not done so at the time of 
applying for his original patent. Putting into writing 
a clear description of his invention, therefore, may 
have been a much more difficult thing for him than 
producing the machine itself, and his obscurities may 
perhaps be accounted for on these grounds. By the 
time his case came into court twelve years later, he 
had risen to a position of wealth and fame. Disliking 

[29] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

publicly to acknowledge his defective schooling, as 
most men in his position naturally would, he may have 
concocted the excuse he gave, rather than admit the 
true explanation. 

But while he had lost the first hearing in the case, 
he was fortunately as well equipped as his enemies for 
continuing the fight. And four years later, on Feb- 
ruary 17, 1785, the former decision was reversed by 
the Court of Common Pleas. 

This decision was not final, and the case was again 
returned to the Court of King's Bench — the same court 
that had decided against him before — and the case 
came up for hearing in June of 1785. This time the 
manufacturers sprung a surprise upon the defendant. 
Two witnesses, a man named Highs, or Hayes, and 
another named Kay, were brought forward, one of 
whom swore that he had invented the roller spinning- 
machine seventeen years before, and the other that he 
had been employed to make this alleged machine in 
that year. As the defense was not prepared for this, 
they asked for time to prepare rebutting evidence; 
but the court refused this, declaring as it had before, 
that the specifications were too " obscure and indefi- 
nite" to warrant the issuance of a patent. 

But the technical decisions of courts cannot change 
popular opinions and convictions. Hayes and Kay 
were soon forgotten, and most unprejudiced contem- 
poraries admitted what all posterity believes, that 
Arkwright was entitled to full credit for the elaboration 
and introduction of the machine that has conferred 
such untold benefits upon mankind. The year fol- 

[30] 




SIR RICHARD ARKWRIGHT. 



AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 

lowing the decision from the King's Bench, Arkwright 
was honored by the order of knighthood — a recogni- 
tion that could not be denied him by the courts. 

"The most marked traits in the character of Ark- 
wright," says a biographer, "were his wonderful ardor, 
energy, and perseverance. He commonly labored in 
his multifarious concerns from five o'clock in the morn- 
ing till nine at night; and when considerably more 
than fifty years of age, feeling that the defects of his 
education placed him under great difficulty and incon- 
venience in conducting his correspondence, and in the 
general management of his business, he encroached 
upon his sleep, in order to gain an hour each day to 
learn English grammar, and another hour to improve 
his writing and orthography! He was impatient of 
whatever interfered with his favorite pursuits; and the 
fact is too strikingly characteristic not to be mentioned, 
that he separated from his wife not many years after 
his marriage, because she, convinced that he would 
starve his family by scheming when he should have 
been shaving, broke some of his experimental models 
of machinery. 

"Arkwright was a severe economist of time; and, 
that he might not waste a moment, he generally traveled 
with four horses, and at a very rapid speed. His con- 
cerns in Derbyshire, Lancashire, and Scotland, were 
so extensive and numerous as to show at once his as- 
tonishing power of transacting business, and his all- 
grasping spirit. In many of these he had partners, 
but he generally managed in such a way, that whoever 
lost, he himself was a gainer. So unbounded was his 

[31] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

confidence in the success of his machinery, and in the 
national wealth to be produced by it, that he would 
make light of discussions on taxation, and say that he 
would pay the national debt! His speculative schemes 
were vast and daring; he contemplated entering into 
the most extensive mercantile transactions, and buy- 
ing up all the cotton in the world, in order to make an 
enormous profit by the monopoly; and from the ex- 
travagance of some of these designs, his judicious 
friends were of opinion that, if he had lived to put 
them in practice, he might have overset the whole 
fabric of his prosperity." 

THE INVENTION OF THE MULE 

While the final decision of the courts against Ark- 
wright seems unjust, it cannot be denied that this 
decision was enormously beneficial to commerce and 
humanity; for it enabled Samuel Crompton to bring 
forward his invention of the "mule," a spinning- 
machine vastly superior in many respects to either that 
of Hargreaves or of Arkwright. Without the inven- 
tions of these two men the mule would probably not 
have been conceived; but it is likewise true that until 
Arkwright' s patents were set aside this useful invention 
could not have been placed upon the market without 
infringement. 

Samuel Crompton, the inventor, was born near 
Bolton in Lancashire, in 1753. He was carefully 
raised as a boy; but his family being in poor circum- 
stances he was obliged to support himself and earn 

[32] 




SAMUEL CROMPTON 



AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 

his education by spinning. Temperamentally he was 
a great contrast to Arkwright, being a dreamer and 
musician, and nothing of the man of affairs that 
stood the inventor of the spinning-frame in such good 
stead. 

For several years Crompton had been engaged in 
spinning with a Hargreaves spinning- jenny in his 
home, and the defects of this machine and also of Ark- 
wright' s frame were very patent to him. He therefore 
set about inventing a new type of machime that should 
combine the good qualities of both, and leave out the 
poor ones. Naturally, his endeavors were conducted 
secretly; for although he did not possess a business 
turn of mind, he had lived too long among the Lanca- 
shire spinners, and was too familiar with the treatment 
accorded Kay, Hargreaves, and Arkwright, not to 
know that his only safety lay in secrecy. It is said 
that the various parts of his machine were kept hidden 
in the walls and ceilings of his home when not in actual 
use. 

The first intimation given the outside world that a 
new process of spinning had been discovered was by 
an exceedingly fine quality of cotton thread offered 
for sale from the Hall-in-the-Wood, Crompton' s home — 
a quality of thread far superior to anything that could 
be manufactured by jenny or frame. How such 
thread was manufactured no one could guess, but 
hundreds of persons determined to find out, either by 
fair means or by foul. Visitors by scores came to the 
Hall, some of them offering to buy, others attempting to 
steal, the secret. Some even went so far as to bore 

VOL. LX.-3 [ 33 ] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

holes in the walls and ceilings of the house in order 
to get a glimpse of the wonderful machine. 

Meanwhile Crompton, poor in worldly goods and 
equally poor in a knowledge of human nature, was con- 
fronted with the fact that the limited means at his com- 
mand were insufficient to pay for taking out a patent. 
In these straits he was induced to reveal his secret to 
certain manufacturers, who assured him of their in- 
tention to repay him amply later on. But these prom- 
ises were not kept, and a sum amounting in all to only 
£60 was all he ever received for what is universally 
conceded the greatest cotton-spinning machine ever 
invented. It was not a pioneer in the field, to be sure, 
like the jenny and the frame, but it overcame the in- 
herent defects of both these machines — defects that 
both Hargreaves and Arkwright had striven in vain to 
correct. 

The mule derives its name from the fact that it 
combines many of the features of the frame and the 
jenny — a hybrid machine. It contains a system of 
rollers like those in the frame, while the twist given 
to the rove coming from these rollers was imparted by 
means of spindles in precisely the same manner as in 
the jenny. It must not be supposed, however, that 
the combining of these principles was a simple matter. 
In point of fact it had probably been attempted many 
times before; but it required the highest type of in- 
ventive genius to accomplish this, and the name of 
Crompton must always stand on a plane with his two 
great predecessors in the history of cotton-manu- 
facture. 

[34] 



AN INDUSTRIAL DEVOLUTION 



THE SELF-ACTING MULE 

Crompton's mules were at first run by manual labor, 
and the number of threads that could be spun, and the 
amount of work accomplished, depended upon the in- 
dividual strength of the workman. In 1790, however, 
William Kelly, of Glasgow, invented a method of run- 
ning the mule by water-power, this invention increas- 
ing the annual output of spun cotton enormously. 
In using Crompton's mule, it was necessary to stop 
the machine and perform certain mechanical parts by 
hand. For this reason the " hand-mule" required 
the constant attention of one person to manipulate it, 
or at most one operator could tend only two machines. 
Attempts to construct a self-acting mule had been made 
as early as 1790, by William Strutt and others, but 
certain economic reasons operated, at that time, against 
its adoption, and retarded its development. About 
1 81 8, however, another self-acting mule was invented 
by William Eaton; and in 1825 Richard Roberts 
patented an improved machine for a similar purpose, 
thus perfecting an automatic machine which did not 
require constant attention. 

With the improvements in methods of producing 
power, and with the perfection of the automatic action 
of the mule, the size of the machine was no longer 
limited to a few spindles. One of the great modern 
machines, having hundreds of spindles, and measuring 
more than a hundred feet in length, can be managed 
by one man, assisted by one or two boys, and performs 

[35] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

in a day the work that required scores of men a century 
ago. 

It should not be understood, however, that the mule 
immediately replaced the spinning-frame, or ever com- 
pletely supplanted it in certain fields. For several 
years there was the keenest rivalry between the two 
machines, although eventually the mule obtained a 
considerable lead over its rival, and by the middle of 
the nineteenth century had completely outstripped the 
older machine. Nevertheless, with certain classes of 
work, Arkwright's frame was still superior to the mule, 
particularly in making strong warp threads. It found 
its place, therefore, in the factories, a place that could 
not be taken by its rival. 

But the advocates of Arkwright's machine were con- 
stantly adding to, and improving the mechanism of 
the frame, these improved machines being known as 
" throstles." By these various improvements the 
throstle began to gain again upon its rival, and by the 
last quarter of the nineteenth century some improve- 
ments introduced in the Arkwright frame in America 
made this type of machine again popular. In the 
United States, the mule gradually lost ground and 
popularity while the new throstle gained steadily, and 
as the advantages of the new machine gradually 
became known in Europe a somewhat similar effect 
was produced there. 

At the present time we have presented practically 
the same situation as regards the relative merits of 
these two machines that obtained a hundred years 
ago. The rivalry between them is just as keen now 

[36] 




OLD METHODS AND NEW IX SPINNING. 



Four views of the interior of a modern New England Cotton Factor}- contrasted with 
the primitive method of spinning with distaff and spindle (lower figure) and with spinning 
wheel Cupper figure). In the room shown in the upper right-hand figure there are 500 girls 
at work. They are invisible from this point of view because of the height of the machinery. 



AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 

as it was then, and generally speaking the merits and 
defects of the machines are relatively the same. For 
general purposes the modified Arkwright spinning- 
machine is the better of the two; but for very delicate 
work it does not compare favorably with the most 
recent types of Crompton's mule. 



[37] 



II 

THE MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILES 

THE art of weaving, like that of spinning, was 
not only known prehistorically, but must 
have been discovered by primitive man in a 
very early period of his development. And such rel- 
atively highly developed nations as the early Egyptians, 
Assyrians, Hindus, and Chinese were good weavers at 
the very earliest period of their history. But it is 
equally true that practically every race of savages, 
even those living in a most primitive state, have some 
knowledge of weaving; while the more highly devel- 
oped types, such as the natives of Mexico and Peru, 
were skilled weavers. 

Even the most casual observation of nature must 
have taught primitive man the general principles of 
weaving. The extraordinary weaving processes by 
which certain tropical birds build their nests, for ex- 
ample, might have given man the necessary hint as 
to the possibility of combining fiber or hair into some- 
thing resembling what we now call cloth, which could 
be used for wearing apparel or for other purposes if 
such a hint was necessary. This observation need 
not have been confined to the natives of tropical re- 
gions, as the observation of certain birds' nests even 
in temperate zones would have furnished the required 

[38] 



MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILES 

information. Ther.: theBaltiii -ex- 

ample, which remain season a: uids 

of trees all over the northern part of North America, 
would hardly have failed to : the possibL 

of interlaced fibers. These n-. hich are made in 

the form of a deep pocket, or pouch, ar imeient 

.gth and durability so that if a numlx:- :' :hem 
ed together, a fairly dura"', 
ment could be made. 

With all these object lessons to be seen in nature 
some observant genius among the primitive tr 

~d sooner or later have adopted, or attempted, 
the methods practised by the birds, and would thus 
have developed at least a rude method of weaving. 
Whether such an incentive actually led to the develop- 
ment of the art cannot, of course, be determined. 
Many other theories have been advanced, most of 
them entirely reasonable, and perhaps all of them 
equally true as regards certain localit: 

Marsden suggests the possible Egyptian origin of 
weaving in the use of reeds for mattings. In this 
connection he Conceding, and indeed afhrming, 

that the balance of probabilities points to Egypt as the 
country in which weaving was first invented, it may 
be pointed out that in all past tin. at present, the 

population of that country has mainly been concen- 
trated upon the lands bordering upon the great river 
Nile. From the days of the Pharaohs down to the 
present time, the swamps of the Nile have been noted 
for the abundance of vegetation roduced, and 

which has been applied to various uses: witness, for 

[39] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

instance, the ark of bulrushes in which, in the days of 
the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt, it is recorded 
the infant Moses was placed. 

"What more natural than that the flags from the 
river should be used for floor coverings? These 
would be strewn about the floors of the tents and dwell- 
ings of the people, as rushes were in this country only 
two or three centuries ago. It would not be long before 
Egyptian mistresses and Ethiopian maidens would 
devise means of utilizing them for decorative purposes; 
especially as when by so doing their durability would 
be enhanced, and the comfort obtained from their 
use increased. Indiscriminately thrown upon the 
floor they would be trampled up, to avoid which the 
first plan adopted would probably be to place them 
longitudinally side by side. In this we get the first 
step in the art of weaving: a parallel arrangement of 
reeds and flags. The next, the introduction of trans- 
verse ones, would speedily follow, as an ornamental 
effect would be obtained by laying others across those 
first placed in parallel order. 

"The second step is thus arrived at: longitudinally 
and transversely arranged flags; but still no weaving 
has taken place. As now supposed to be laid, they 
would be liable to derangement ever} 7 time a person 
moved across the floor, which would destroy the orna- 
mental effect. To prevent this it may be assumed that 
various expedients would be resorted to before it 
dawned upon any one's mind that the transverse flags 
should be made to pass alternately over and under 
those laid in a longitudinal direction, in order to secure 

[40] 



MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILES 

a comparatively permanent arrangement to the mass, 
and such as had never been obtained before. In- 
creased utility combined with a beautiful effect would 
be the outcome of this disposition of the materials, 
and it could not fail to strike observers very forcibly. 
Such would possibly, even probably, be the first woven 
fabric, and its conspicuous advantages would speedily 
secure extensive imitation and general adoption. This 
conjecture, it may be observed, is based on a sub- 
stratum of fact." 

In every country the amount of weaving must depend 
of course upon the amount of spinning, or cotton and 
wool products that are manufactured in, or imported 
into, the country. For obviously the weaver cannot 
work unless he has threads or yam to work with. 
Until the beginning of the eighteenth century the 
balance of production of spinning and weaving was 
practically equal in England and Western Europe, 
both spinners and weavers producing their products 
by manual labor only. In the seventeenth century, 
however, England began extensive trading with India, 
and the English merchantmen returning from the 
Orient began bringing into Great Britain quantities 
of cotton cloth made by the Indians. This importation 
soon threatened the English spinning and weaving 
industries, and was restricted by legislation at the be- 
ginning of the eighteenth century. But these laws had 
only a restricting effect, without absolutely stopping the 
traffic, and they fell very far short of solving the problem 
of overproduction by the spinners. The weaver was un- 
able to weave the yarn as fast as the spinner could make it. 

[41] 



INGENUITY AM) LUXURY 



JOHN KAY AND THE FLYING SHUTTLE 

What was needed was some device for weaving 
cloth more rapidly, and ELS IS usual in sueh eases of 
necessity, an inventor soon appeared whose invention 
revolutionized the weaving industry so completely that 
the market, instead of being overstocked with eotton 
yarn, was quickly depleted, the new weaving machines 
Consuming the supply faster than it eould be produced. 
The inventor of this new weaving-machine was John 
Ray, an Englishman, and his invention was the famous 
flying shuttle, invented in 173S. 

This machine did for weaving what Hargreaves' 
spinning jenny did for spinning— it doubled and quad- 
rupled the power of the weaver. In the older looms 
in use before the time of Kay's invention, the operation 
of weaving was performed by two men working at a 
single loom, one man throwing the shuttle carrying 
the weft thread across the warp threads while the other 
man caught it in his hand. In the flying-shuttle loom 
the work of catching the shuttle was done mechanic- 
ally, one man being thus enabled to work the loom 
without assistance. As the second man was no longer 
required, he, too, eould take charge of a loom and thus 
the weaving output be doubled. The principles in- 
volved in this machine were practically the same as 
those in modern looms, although it has taken the 
efforts and genius of an army of inventors since Kay's 
first invention to produce the wonderful modern loom. 

Reference has been made in the preceding chapter 

[4»] 



MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILES 

to the hostile reception given this wonderfully useful 
invention by the fellow countrymen of Kay; how they 
rose against him, smashed his machines and workshop 
and drove him from the county. He was more gra- 
ciously received in other parts of the country, however, 
although he never realized any material gain from his 
invention and died in straitened circumstances a few 
years later. 

One of his sons, Robert Kay, who inherited the 
inventive genius of his father, devised what is known 
as the "drop-box," in 1760. This is an arrangement 
of several boxes whereby a weaver could insert several 
colors as stripes across the length of his loom with 
great facility. By arranging the warp threads in al- 
ternating colors it was possible by this method to weave 
checkered effects as easily as single-colored ones. The 
principle involved in this invention is still in use, and 
thus John Kay and his son Robert may justly be con- 
sidered the originators of modern weaving processes. 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE POWER-LOOM 

The first attempt at inventing a successful power- 
loom, or one approaching practicality, seems to have 
been made by M. de Gennes, an officer in the French 
Navy. He sent suggestions for such a machine to 
the Academy of Sciences in 1678, and although it has 
since been determined that these specifications contained 
the germ of an idea of a power-loom, nothing of any 
practical importance came of them. Almost a century 
later, a countryman of De Gennes M. Vauconson, 

[43] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

made a similar attempt to produce a power-loom; but 
his efforts were made in that most inauspicious time 
at the middle of the eighteenth century, when Kay's 
flying shuttle had made the hand -weaver able easily 
to outstrip the spinners. In fact, many looms were 
forced to stand idle part of the time because of the 
inability of spinners to supply yarn. With the inven- 
tions of Hargreaves and Arkwright, however, these 
conditions were reversed, and by the closing years of 
the century there was an overproduction of spun 
products which could not be handled by the ordinary 
looms. 

It was at this period, in 1784, that the attention of 
a certain Dr. Edmund Cartwright, clergyman of the 
Church of England, was directed to the problem con- 
fronting the weavers. This remarkable man, without 
ever having seen a weaver or a loom at work, and never 
having attempted anything in the field of mechanics 
before, soon produced the first ancestor of the power- 
loom, whose modern descendants are among the most 
remarkable of all ingenious machines. 

In the history of scientific discovery and invention 
there are other instances where the temperament of a 
poet has been combined with the practical mechanical 
application of the mechanic, and wonderful discover- 
ies and inventions have been the result; but perhaps 
nowhere is this exemplified better than in the case of 
Doctor Cartwright. Educated at Oxford in Univer- 
sity College, and fellow of Magdalen College in 1764, 
his life had been spent in fields far removed from that 
of practical mechanics. Writing poetry and preaching 

[44] 



MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILES 

were his occupations, and at both he had succeeded 
well. At forty years of age he was well known for his 
Armiul and Eloira, a legendary tale in verse which 
passed through some seven editions in a year, and for 
The Prince of Peace, a poem of considerable merit. Two 
years later he was far better known as one of the world's 
great inventors. The story of this invention has been 
told by Cartwright in a letter written to his friend 
Bannatyne, in which he gives a vivid picture of the 
circumstances that induced him to enter the field of 
mechanics. 

"Happening to be in Matlock in the summer of 
1784," he wrote, "I fell in company with some gentle- 
men of Manchester, when the conversation turned on 
Arkwright's spinning-machinery. One of the company 
observed that as soon as Arkwright's patent expired 
so many mills would be erected, and so much cotton 
spun, that hands never could be found to weave it. 
To this observation I replied that Arkwright must then 
set his wits to work to invent a weaving-mill. This 
brought on a conversation on the subject, in which the 
Manchester gentlemen unanimously agreed that the 
thing was impracticable ; and in defense of this opinion 
they adduced arguments which I certainly was incom- 
petent to answer, or even to comprehend, being totally 
ignorant of the subject, having never at that time seen 
a person weave. I controverted, however, the imprac- 
ticality of the thing, by remarking that there had lately 
been exhibited in London an automaton figure which 
played at chess. 'Now you will not assert, gentlemen,' 
said I, ' that it is more difficult to construct a machine 

[45] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

that shall weave, than one which shall make all the 
variety of moves which are required in that complicated 
game.' 

"Some little time afterward a particular circumstance 
recalling this conversation to my mind, it struck me 
that, as in plain weaving, according to the conception 
I then had of the business, there could only be three 
movements, which were to follow each other in suc- 
cession, there would be little difficulty in producing 
and repeating them. Full of these ideas, I immediately 
employed a carpenter and smith to carry them into 
effect. As soon as the machines were finished, I got 
a weaver to put in the warp, which was of such material 
as sail-cloth is made of. To my great delight, a piece 
of cloth, such as it was, was the product. 

"As I had never before turned my thoughts to any- 
thing mechanical, either in theory or practice, nor had 
ever seen a loom at work, or knew anything of its con- 
struction, you will readily suppose that my first loom 
was a rude piece of machinery. The warp was placed 
perpendicularly, the reel fell with the weight of at least 
half a hundredweight, and the springs which threw 
the shuttle were strong enough to have thrown 
a Congreve rocket. In short, it required the 
strength of two powerful men to work the machine at 
a slow rate, and only for a short time. Conceiving, 
in my great simplicity, that I had accomplished all that 
was required, I then secured what I thought a most 
valuable property, by a patent, 4th of April, 1785. 
This being done, I then condescended to see how other 
people wove, and you will guess my astonishment 

[46] 



MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILES 

when I compared their easy modes of operation with 
mine. Availing myself, however, of what I then saw, 
I made a loom, in its general principles nearly as they 
are now made. But it was not till the year 1787 that 
I completed my invention, when I took out my last 
weaving-patent, August 1st, of that year." 



A VERSATILE INVENTOR 

Naturally the man who could make one such revo- 
lutionary invention could not stop at that, and Doctor 
Cartwright followed up his first invention with many 
others. Patent packings for steam-engine pistons, 
combining-machines, bread-making, brick-making, and 
rope-making machines followed quickly. None of 
these served such useful purposes as his first great 
effort, and they netted him in the end a vast amount of 
profitless unhappiness, his patents being constantly 
infringed. For the spirit of opposition to mechanical 
contrivances for lessening labor still remained as domi- 
nant among British workmen as it had in the time of 
Kay and Hargreaves, and when in 1791 Cartwright 
succeeded in finding an honest manufacturer willing 
to use his looms and pay a royalty, the factory con- 
taining the machines was burned and destroyed by 
an incendiary. Meanwhile, his patents of all kinds 
were infringed without redress everywhere, and though 
late in life he received a grant of £10,000 from Par- 
liament, this was small recompense for the money he 
had spent, to say nothing of his years of labor and 
struggle. 

[47] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

THE POWER -LOOM PERFECTED 

Cartwright's first loom, which according to his own 
letter quoted above was a very crude affair, neverthe- 
less contained the essential principles of the modern 
power-loom. In his specifications for his patents he 
describes these essential features as follows, "The 
shuttle, instead of being thrown by hand, is thrown 
either by a spring, the vibration of a pendulum, the 
stroke of a hammer, or by the application of one of 
the mechanical powers, according to the nature of 
the work and the distance the shuttle is required to 
be thrown, and, lastly, the web winds up gradually 
as it is woven." Then follow other details which con- 
stitute the complete process of manufacturing cloth. 
The power for running this machine was imparted 
to a roller by means of a crank and handle. 

His first machines, as we have seen, were defective 
in certain things, and Cartwright set about perfecting 
and completing every feature and combating mechan- 
ically every difficulty that might arise in the process 
of weaving. His visits to the places where practical 
weaving was being done had shown him the defects 
and possible weakness of his machine, and furnished 
him with many new ideas. The result was that by 
1786 he had perfected plans for an absolutely auto- 
matic power-loom, almost as complete in every detail 
as the most perfect loom of to-day. This machine 
not only provided for automatically handling the 
shuttle, but for "warping, beaming, sizing, taking-up 
motion for cloth, letting-off motion for warp, stopping 

[48] 




I "E AND ADVAN'CED METHOI HAVING. 

The upper figure shows a modern Algerian weaving cloth. The lower figure 
presents a modern weaving machine, which, without the introduction of any new 
principle, performs the operation of weaving with enormously increased speed, 
and produces a cloth much more uniform in texture. 



MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILES 

motion for broken warp and weft" — in short, several 
things that are hardly practicable in the highest type 
of modern loom. But this wonderfully complete ma- 
chine was at least a century ahead of its time in many 
features, and was not a practicable success, although 
Cartwright's more simple looms were soon installed 
all over Great Britain, quickly equalizing the momen- 
tary advantage in production gained by the new spin- 
ning-machines. 

THE JACQUARD LOOM 

The closing years of the eighteenth century and the 
opening years of the nineteenth saw an army of inven- 
tors in the field improving the power-loom. Some of 
these improvements were extremely useful, and some 
of the inventors deserve more than passing notice. 
Among these was the Frenchman Joseph Marie Jac- 
quard, modifications of whose invention, the " Jacquard 
loom," are still responsible for the weaving of most 
elaborate modern pattern fabrics. 

Jacquard was born July 7, 1752, at Lyons, the great 
silk-manufacturing center of France. Although raised 
in an atmosphere of weaving, his father and mother 
both being engaged in that trade, young Jacquard 
became interested in bookbinding, afterward turning 
his attention to type-founding, and still later to the 
manufacture of cutlery. On the death of his father, 
however, he came into possession of a small cottage 
and a silk-loom, and as his other ventures had not 
proved particularly successful, he returned to his an- 
cestral home and entered the silk- weaving trade. 

VOL. IX. — 4 [ 49 1 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

His experience in other forms of manufacture soon 
led him to appreciate the shortcomings of the ordi- 
nary power-looms then in use, and as early as 1790 
he seems to have invented, and brought to something 
like practical form, his now famous loom. At this 
time all France was involved in the Revolutionary 
War and Lyons was one of the centers of activity. 
Jacquard and other members of his family left their 
looms to fight against the forces of the Convention. 
In one of the battles against these armies his son was 
killed while fighting at his side, and this is said to have 
determined Jacquard to renounce the profession of 
a soldier and return again to his loom. 

By the beginning of the nineteenth century he had 
perfected his invention of a loom for weaving, and in 
1804 he exhibited his new machine, and was given a 
bronze medal by the National Convention. About 
the same time he received prizes at home and in Eng- 
land for the invention he had made with which fish- 
nets could be woven quickly and cheaply. 

Having gained this success Jacquard returned to 
Lyons and succeeded in interesting several manufac- 
turers in his new looms. The utility of his invention 
was so apparent that he was allowed to install several 
of his machines in the factories of the neighborhood. 
But the weavers themselves did not receive his inven- 
tion in the same spirit as the factory owners, and shortly 
after several of his machines had been installed, a 
mob of workmen attacked the factories in which they 
were being used, tore them from their frames and made 
bonfires of them in the streets. Jacquard narrowly 

[50] 



MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILES 

escaped with his life, being smuggled out of the 
neighborhood by friends. 

While the French mobs, like the English, might 
destroy the new machines, they could not destroy the 
ideas involved ; and the value of Jacquard's invention 
had been too thoroughly demonstrated to allow its 
suppression by localized acts of violence. Other simi- 
lar machines were soon produced, and before the end of 
the first quarter of the century, the Jacquard loom was 
in general use, not only in France, but in every country 
where extensive weaving was done. While the inven- 
tor never realized the same financial gain from his 
invention as did the more fortunate Arkwright in Eng- 
land from his spinning-machine, he at least fared better 
than Hargreaves, and spent the last years of his life 
in apparently comfortable circumstances. He died 
in 1834 in a place near his native home, having returned 
there a few years after the destruction of his first loom. 

One of the great problems to be overcome was that 
of producing a loom that would supply a full bobbin 
of yarn to the empty shuttle, or replace an empty shut- 
tle with a full one, without stopping the machinery. 
But despite the efforts of numerous inventors this was 
not accomplished in practical form until 1894, when 
the Northrop loom was invented. This machine is 
made with a magazine which is kept filled with full 
bobbins, and by an ingenious mechanism automat- 
ically forces out the empty bobbins and replaces 
them without stopping or retarding the weaving. At 
present this loom can be used for weaving the simpler 
kinds of cotton fabrics only, but its popularity is shown 

[so 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

by the fact that some seven ty thousand of these looms 
were put into operation during the first decade of the in- 
vention. Attempts are being made constantly to perfect 
this loom for more complicated weaving, and it is prob- 
able that this will be accomplished in the near future. 
For complicated weaving the Jacquard loom is still 
the one in universal use, the modern looms of this type 
adhering closely to the principle of the original inven- 
tion. Like the modern power-loom this machine is 
altogether too complicated to be understood from a 
description, but the secret of the pattern weaving with 
this machine lies in the use of peculiar paper-card 
patterns which guide the needles, and with which the 
ordinary workman can produce the most beautiful 
effects in a comparatively short time. Generally 
speaking, the more complicated the pattern to be woven 
the greater the number of cards that must be used, 
but once these cards are made the weaving can be done 
very quickly, and there is practically no limit to the 
number of patterns that can be produced. In some 
very elaborate designs as many as thirty thousand sep- 
arate cards have been used, although the use of this 
extraordinary number is unusual. 

FINISHING TEXTILE FABRICS 

With the Jacquard loom it is possible, as already 
pointed out, to weave complicated patterns, the threads 
employed being of course dyed to the various shades 
required before being placed in the loom. With many 
varieties of material, however, the more economical 
method is employed of printing the pattern on the 




MOD 

The lower figur . . ■ 

weaving apparatus, which employs the '-hat 

are utilizer' in -'- n i 1 r 

3 the remarkable appar^ . the 

Frenchman, Jacquarrl, with the % iter! 

patt: - - 

the pattern. The loom to which the Jar ' : is 

attached in the above model is weaving a r. a r no 



MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILES 

finished cloth. This is particularly done in the case 
of certain cotton goods, notably the calicos. These 
goods are also frequently treated with various so- 
called sizes to give them weight and body, and sundry 
processes of calendering — which may be roughly 
likened to ironing — are employed to give them a 
smooth surface. Beetling is a process by which a cot- 
ton fabric is rendered softer and at the same time more 
impervious, usually by some form of drop hammer or 
stamp, but sometimes by rollers having a checkered 
surface. 

The printing of these goods was formerly accom- 
plished with the aid of wooden blocks carved much 
after the manner of wood engravings for the repro- 
duction of pictures. The blocks were furnished with 
color by placing them face downward on a cloth 
stretched on a frame which floated on gum water, and 
on this cloth the printer continuously brushed the re- 
quired color. When the pattern required additional 
colors, these were supplied successively by different 
blocks. It was not unusual, however, for the printer 
to use a chemical mixture known as mordant which 
acted on the dye when the article was subsequently 
immersed in the dye vat. White spots were sometimes 
obtained by printing them with wax before dyeing, 
so preventing these spots from absorbing the coloring 
matter. In modern calico printing, however, rotary 
machines are almost entirely employed, the pattern 
being engraved on the copper surface of the roller, and 
the impression taking place when passing between the 
printing and platen rollers, the process being essen- 

[53] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

tially that employed in ordinary printing processes 
for the production of books or newspapers. 

Woolen goods are usually made from yarns dyed 
before weaving, and the finishing process applied to 
the cloth is altogether different from that used in the 
case of cotton fabrics. Here it is often desired to ob- 
tain a finish that hides the individual threads of the 
warp and weft. This effect is produced by the stray 
ends projecting from woolen threads, these ends in 
the woven material when brushed or treated with hot 
water matting together and forming a nap that conceals 
the individual threads. The surface of any ordinary 
piece of new woolen goods shows this effect; and 
equally familiar is the fact that when the nap wears 
off the threads reappear, the cloth becoming literally 
threadbare. 

The process employed from an early date for thus 
finishing the surface of woolen goods is a simple but 
peculiar one. It is dubbed "teasing" because the 
essential apparatus employed in the process consisted 
of the prickly seed balls of the teasel plant, which are 
covered with minute hooks and hence are admirably 
adapted to open and loosen the uppermost fibers of 
the wool when drawn over the cloth. Originally the 
teasels were set in a frame which was rubbed over 
the cloth by two men, but subsequently the more con- 
venient method was devised of arranging the teasels 
on a cylindrical drum, so constructed in connection 
with other cylinders that the cloth could be passed and 
repassed over it by the action of a belt or other gearing. 
This apparatus constitutes a teasing or gig mill. 

[54] 



MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILES 

Whether the natural teasel or an artificial substi- 
tute — bearing the same name — is employed, the proc- 
ess constitutes essentially, as already noted, a repeated 
scratching of the surface of the cloth; but the final 
result is determined partly by the extent to which the 
teasing process is carried out, and partly by the original 
quality of the woolen thread itself. The difference 
between worsted threads and woolens proper has al- 
ready been pointed out; and the different appearance 
of goods that have been subjected to the action of the 
teasing mill from those not so treated is familiar to 
every one, though the method that accounts for the 
diversity may not be so commonly understood. 

LACE MAKING AND KINTTING MACHINERY 

It remains to say a few words about a class of textiles 
of an entirely different type from those hitherto con- 
sidered, — those, namely, produced from the continuous 
inter-looping of a single thread, without the employ- 
ment of weft or warp threads. The familiar examples 
of this process are nets, laces, and garments produced 
by crocheting and knitting. A well-known pecu- 
liarity of a knitted garment is that the cloth, being 
free from warp threads, is extensible in any direction, 
adapting itself to the contour of the body in a way 
not to be expected of a woven fabric. 

Although net-making and various types of lace- 
making have been practised from antiquity, it is a rather 
curious fact that the simple processes of crocheting 
and knitting are of modern origin, having originated, 

[55] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

it is believed, in Scotland no longer ago than the fif- 
teenth century. It is doubly curious that whereas this 
simple process of knitting with four parallel sticks or 
wires known as knitting needles, operated by hand, 
was invented at so relatively recent a period, yet a com- 
plicated machine known as the stocking frame, which 
knits mechanically, was invented in 1589, almost two 
centuries before the development of the weaving ma- 
chines of Hargreaves and his successors. The inventor 
of this first knitting machine was the Reverend William 
Lee. He introduced from the outset the fundamental 
principle of a successful knitting machine, correctly 
conceiving that a separate needle should be used for 
each loop. "In this way he at first made flat webs which 
by being sewn together along their selvedges made a 
cylinder. He afterwards found the means of produc- 
ing shaped articles by throwing out of action some of 
the hooks as required. Lee, failing to get support 
in England, took his machine to France where he suc- 
cessfully settled at Rouen, and in 1640 his frames were 
adopted in Leicester. 

"The knitting by machinery of the ribbed surface, 
which gives so much greater elasticity in one direction, 
was first accomplished by Jedediah Strutt in 1758 by the 
introduction of a second set of needles at right angles 
to the first set. The circular knitting machine by 
which cylindrical work could be produced without 
seams was brought into a form suitable for practical 
use in 1845 by Mr. Peter Claussen, but such an arrange- 
ment had been suggested much earlier. 

"The needles in a stocking frame or knitting ma- 

[56] 



MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILES 

chine have hooked ends, with the hook extending 
backwards to form a long spring barb or 'beard' 
which is capable of being pressed close to the body of 
the needle, so that the loop of thread on the needle 
can be pushed over the hook when the beard is de- 
pressed, or will be retained on the hook if the beard 
is up. In this way the loop in the hook is drawn 
through the loop that has been formed round the 
needle. In 1858 Mr. M. Townsend introduced the 
'latch-needle,' in which the beard is replaced by a 
ringer hinged to the needle; this arrangement simpli- 
fies the work of the machine, and the small knitters 
for domestic use usually have needles of this type. 
It has been stated that a hand knitter can work 100 
loops a minute, that Lee's machine did 1,000 to 1,500 
loops, and that the circular frame does from 250,000 to 
500,000 per minute. 

"Knitting is one of the few industries in which the 
factory system has not completely displaced home in- 
dustry, and the tendency seems to be to extend the 
employment of small machines worked by hand or 
treadle at the operator's home, rather than the larger 
installations of a factory. The knitting and hosiery 
industries are now of the greatest importance, and in- 
clude the manufacture of underclothing, caps, stocki- 
net cloth, etc., while the bags or 'shirts' in which 
frozen meat is shipped, and the little mantles for the 
Welsbach burner, are examples of the varied appli- 
cation of this interesting process." These industries, 
however, are of course of minor importance as com- 
pared with the production of woven textiles, 

[57] 



Ill 

THE STORY OF COSTUMES 

IF ONE examines the mode of dress that held 
with certain races even in the very earliest times 
and compares the costumes of that period with 
the costumes of to-day, one is struck with the rela- 
tively small departure that has been made, at least as 
regards the general types. Not that the digressions 
have not been great enough in some of the intervening 
centuries between the dawn of history and the present 
time, as during certain periods of the Middle Ages 
when comfort and convenience were not considered 
in the costumes worn. But this is a practical age, 
and it was necessarily a practical age when clothing 
was first worn, and our clothes just at present are de- 
signed along practical lines as were those of our remote 
ancestors. And thus we have almost completed the 
cycle, and returned to the simple type of garment worn 
by our most remote civilized ancestors in the cooler 
regions. 

If we go back and examine the kind of clothing of 
that most remote ancestor who lived near the Equator 
before he had developed sufficiently to begin conquer- 
ing the colder regions, we should find him first with 
no protective clothing at all, then gradually protecting 

[s»] 



THE STORY OF COSTUMES 

body and limbs with skins, and later with woven cloth. 
But the clothing of this man need not concern us here. 
Our interest begins when he started on his migrations 
into cooler regions and was obliged to adopt some form 
of clothing more convenient than loose skins wrapped 
about his shoulders or around the waist. For this 
northern dweller is the one largely responsible for our 
modern form of clothes and dress. 

So long as civilization centered in tropical regions 
where dress for protection against the inclemencies of 
the weather was unnecessary, such as the regions of 
the Nile, there was little advance toward our modern 
form of dress. But while the Nile dwellers were still 
wearing the flowing garments that so little resemble 
modern clothes, there were undoubtedly races of bar- 
barous men in the wilderness lying to the north, who 
were wearing garments closely resembling our modern 
coats, trousers, shoes, gloves, and hats. 

The idea represented in these garments was that of 
combining the greatest amount of freedom for the 
limbs with the maximum protection. For this pur- 
pose jackets, or shirts with sleeves, and trousers not 
unlike modern ones were used centuries before they 
were worn by more southerly races. And that these 
northern barbarians had solved the problem better 
than their more enlightened southern neighbors and 
the Oriental races, is shown by the tendency of modern 
practical forms of clothing. For although it has taken 
millenniums to convince certain Oriental nations that 
garments consisting essentially of jacket and trousers 
more nearly meet the requirements of active men than 

[59] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

any other type, the fact that this is true is now shown by 
the general tendency to-day of all nations to clothe 
their soldiers in such costumes. Nearly every prac- 
tical soldier in this practical age, whether he be a Japa- 
nese, Hindu, Turk, or roughrider, wears a costume in 
the main consisting of the essential garments of the 
costume worn at the dawn of civilization by the north- 
ern races. 

In short, the Oriental races have been forced to 
admit the superiority of the practical Western cos- 
tumes, this admission being tacitly shown by their 
adoption. Yet the interval between the time of this 
first simple costume and the return to it in a general 
way at the present time , is filled with more fantastic 
departures than can be found in almost any other 
field of history. 

Undoubtedly, two very important factors have fig- 
ured preeminently in this development — military 
methods, and fashion. The first of these is the more 
easily understood and explained. The second has 
usually been, and still is, inexplicable, although not 
always so in certain instances. And even in military 
costumes fashion has made itself felt in every stage 
and phase of progress. 

In the ages when the common weapon, the sword, 
was carried at all times for protection, costumes that 
permitted free use of it should have been the prevailing 
ones. But this was not always the case, even jeopardy 
to life itself being sacrificed to fashion. It is only in 
very recent years that convenience alone has been 
considered in the dress of the soldier in active service; 

[60] 



THE STORY OF COSTUMES 

and except in times of war this is still not the only 
consideration. 

Nevertheless we are undoubtedly progressing from 
the complex to the simple, just as our ancient ancestors 
progressed from the simple to the complex. 

SOME CURIOUS FASHIONS EXPLAINED 

As was said a moment ago the caprices of fashion 
are usually inexplicable; such, however, is not always 
the case. Some fashions have been established for 
very definite reasons. Thus the custom of wearing 
long-pointed shoes, which remained popular for several 
centuries, resulting in the most grotesque and incon- 
venient footwear imaginable, originated with Count 
Fulk of Anjou, who sought to hide his deformed feet. 
Being afflicted with bunions he sought to cover his 
misshapen members by wearing extremely long, pointed 
shoes. What the count did, his followers must do; and 
hence the resulting grotesque and inconvenient fashion 
in shoes. 

Richard III of England, being deformed, wore 
garments padded and puffed to hide his deformity, 
and this fashion was adopted and elaborated by his 
courtiers. And it is more than likely if we could but 
fathom the secret, that numerous other absurd fash- 
ions originated in some subterfuge to conceal bodily 
defects in some pampered leader of fashion. 

Once a thing became fashionable, it was no easy 
matter to break the established custom, no matter 
how foolish or inconvenient it might be. Hoop- 

[61] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

skirts, for example, remained in use for a good part of 
two centuries despite reasonable arguments, satire, 
and ministerial condemnation, and have only fallen 
into disuse in our own generation. 

The Church was continually preaching against ex- 
travagance in dress, particularly during the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries, without any effect whatever; 
and occasionally a monarch took a hand, and even set 
an example for his subjects. The " merry monarch," 
Charles II, attempted to change the ridiculous fashion 
of his time by adopting a plain type of dress not un- 
like the modern suit, declaring that he should wear 
no other style during the remainder of his life. De- 
spite the secret smiles of his courtiers he kept his word 
for some time. Then his luxurious neighbor across 
the channel, Louis XIV, heard of Charles's decision, 
and promptly adopted the English monarch's costume 
as livery for his servants. This was too much even 
for a reformer; and Charles quickly surrendered and 
returned to his former costumes. 

In England, at least, the plagues were responsible 
for some changes in fashions, and for the continuance 
of fashions in vogue, and a tendency to simplicity in 
dress. The great plague of 1665 almost completely 
depopulated certain districts of London, some well- 
worn thoroughfares being so deserted that grass grew 
in the streets. It came to be generally believed at 
that time that imported garments were the cause of 
infection, and even fashionable gallants became chary 
of purchasing new clothes. The result was that tail- 
ors were obliged to close their shops, and some usually 

[62] 



THE STORY OF COSTUMES 

well-groomed men wore their old suits until they were 
as shabby as beggar garments. When they were 
finally obliged to buy they bought sparingly from well- 
known sources, and this tended to simplify the cut of 
garments by curtailing the amount of uninfected cloth 
obtainable. 

In a much less degree the plagues affected the wear- 
ing of wigs. For although it was believed, probably 
with good reason, that many of the wigmaker's prod- 
ucts were made from hair clipped from the heads of 
plague victims, human vanity was such that even risk- 
ing death itself was preferable to exposing gray hairs, 
or no hairs at all. Men could bear excusably aged 
garments better than the inexcusable marks of bodily 
age; and so wigmakers flourished despite the plagues, 
while their tailor neighbors starved. 

But the heyday of the wig was the eighteenth cen- 
tury. In that age they were no longer confined to 
the small affairs made to match and conceal crowns 
of hair, or simply to hide gray locks, but were made more 
as hoods and hats, and worn by all well-to-do gentle- 
men. A gentleman would feel as ridiculous without 
'his wig at that time as one would now without 
a collar. 

The custom of powdering the wig is said to have 
originated through the whims of some French buffoons. 
A troop of these performers, wishing to make them- 
selves as grotesque as possible, covered their wigs 
with flour. This caught the fancy of a bevy of rol- 
licking French gallants, who imitated the buffoons, 
and soon established a custom which came to be re- 

[6 3 ] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

garded in all seriousness. Delicately scented powders 
soon replaced ordinary white flour, and great powdered 
and perfumed headpieces, costing sometimes three 
hundred dollars or more, came to be part of the dress 
of every well-groomed gentleman. 

These costly adornments soon became the marks 
of thieves and purse-snatchers, who wrought havoc 
among the wig-wearers in the narrow London and 
Paris streets. Instead of being in danger of having 
his pockets picked, a man was in constant fear of hav- 
ing his wig snatched. In no place was he entirely 
safe. If he rode in a closed coach the clever thief 
might mount the rear axle, cut dexterously through 
the back curtain, and extract a wig by a single jerk. 
If he passed along the streets at night a fish-hook 
dangling from some house-top might free him of his 
hat and wig at one haul. And if he sat near an open 
window on the street he was in constant danger from 
long arms or still longer poles with hooks attached. 

A very common method employed by the thieves 
for carrying on their trade was to assume the role of 
bakers, carrying large baskets on their heads or shoul- 
ders. In the basket was concealed a small but nim- 
ble-fingered boy whose business it was to dart out 
his hand at the right moment and remove the wig of 
some unfortunate passer-by. 

THE FOLLIES OF FASHION 

It is difficult to select any one period and point to 
it as the one of preeminently ridiculous fashion in 

[64]' 



THE STORY OF COSTUMES 

dress, since even the nineteenth century was guilty 
of many follies in this direction, if not quite equalling 
some of the preceding ones. But in many respects 
the age of Queen Elizabeth and Shakespeare — the 
age of the "ruff" — is quite the most remarkable. 
And in this craze for ruff -wearing, as in many other 
crazes in preceding centuries, the men were more at 
fault than the women. 

About the middle of the sixteenth century French 
gentlemen began to wear collarettes, or frilled ruffles, 
and the fashion soon spread all over the Continent 
and across the Channel to England. A few years 
later and the wide ruff characteristic of the Elizabethan 
period was in full sway. Henry III of France wore 
ruffs something over a foot in depth, which contained 
more than nineteen yards of cloth. 

In such a ruff Henry and his courtiers could move 
their heads very little, and eating and drinking with- 
out soiling it were difficult feats. Special table uten- 
sils were necessary, such as long-handled spoons, 
some particularly full-beruffed ladies using special 
spoons two feet long for taking their soup. These 
great ruffs were supported by small irons and wires, 
holding the three, four, or five rows of lace in place, 
the last row appearing above the top of the head. 

Later the use of starch was introduced and this 
gave a fresh impetus to ruff-wearing. Where the cus- 
tom originated cannot be definitely determined, but it 
came into the household of Queen Bess through the 
wife of her Dutch coachman, who understood the art 
of starching. This thrifty housewife was soon starch- 
vol. k.— 5 [ 65 ] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

ing the ruffs of all the fine ladies of London — and ac- 
cumulating a fortune by it. She starched ruffs white 
or yellow at discretion, yellow being a very popular 
color until a certain Mrs. Turner, who had poisoned 
Sir Thomas Overbury, thoughtlessly wore a yellow 
ruff on her way to execution. This decided the fate of 
yellow ruffs, as wearing them thereafter was thought 
too suggestive. 

The custom of ruff- wearing came in for as full a meas- 
ure of condemnation by "censors of public morals " 
as any one fashion ever adopted. Yet such condem- 
nation met the same fate that arguing or preaching 
against any fashion usually meets. The great ruff 
went out of use when capricious fashion, for some 
unknown reason, dictated that it should. "No fash- 
ion has ever been preached down in England by mor- 
alists," says a writer, "and the ruff held itself erect 
through all condemnation, never unbending its stiff- 
ness or yielding an inch of its width for any censure. 
Indeed, the law, unless upheld by physical force, was 
powerless against the ruff." 

In Spain, the fate of the ruff, which in the days of 
Philip III had become enormous and costly, — "per- 
haps the most extravagant article of dress ever gen- 
erally and diurnally worn in any country" — was one 
of those matters for royal interference to which we 
referred a moment ago. Philip IV, in 1623, issued 
pragmatics suppressing it, and decreed as alternatives 
either the plain linen band or the flat Walloon collar 
falling over the shoulders. Both of these articles were 
utterly rejected by the splendor-loving Spaniards, and 

[66] 



THE STORY OF COSTUMES 

the problem now became one of finding a new collar 
that would be dignified and stiff without the forbid- 
den starch "or other alchemy/ ' for so the pragmatics 
read. 

A clever Madrid tailor finally appeared one day 
before the king with a wide-spreading construction 
he had made of cardboard, covered with silk on its 
inner surface and with cloth on the outer. The card- 
board had been ironed and shellacked to give it a per- 
manent shape. The new collar looked well and it 
was certainly an economical neck-gear, so Philip, 
well pleased at his subject's ingenuity, ordered some 
from the happy tailor for himself and his brother. 

"But alas!" says an authority on Spanish history, 
"the pragmatics had forbidden 'any sort of alchemy ' 
to make collars stiff, and moreover, the Inquisition 
was soon told by its spies that some secret incantations, 
needing the use of mysterious smoking pots and heated 
machines turned by handles, were being performed by 
the tailor in the Calle Mayor." 

Here was trouble indeed for this humble maker of 
fashions. He was haled before the dread tribunal, and 
was most lucky, as he thought, to escape with having 
his stock and implements burnt before his door. 

It is needless to say that the President of the Inqui- 
sition was severely censured when the matter came to the 
king's attention, and the tailor once more set to work. 

His new creations were promptly called "gollilas" 
and were worn at once by the men of the royal family 
and their many courtiers. 

'Thenceforward," continues Hume, "all Spain, 

[6 7 ] 



IN(,KMITY AND LUXURY 

Spanish Italy, and South America wore gollilas, the 
curve, size, and shape changing somewhat as other 
fashions changed, but the principle remained the same, 
until Spain was born again and a French king banned 
the gollila as barbarous and imposed upon his new 
subjects the falling lace cravat and jabot of the eight- 
eenth century." 

KNITTED OARMFXTS 

The time of the first introduction of knitted stock- 
ings, whether oi silk, wool, or cotton, is unknown. 
As elsewhere noted, the art oi knitting was seemingly 
an invention of the fifteenth century. Some articles 
called "silk hose" are recorded among the effects of 
Henry VIII, and by some this is interpreted as meaning 
knitted stockings. If such were the case, this is per- 
haps the first record of such stockings being worn in 
England, and France was not in advance of her neigh- 
bor in this respect. It is probable that such stockings 
were worn in Spain some time before, and by the time 
of Elizabeth they had come into general use. 

Thus every part of the modem garment had been 
evolved, and from the sixteenth century onward the 
changes that occurred were simply modifications in 
form. The modem starched linen collar, cuff, and 
shirt-front are direct descendants of the starched 
rnffs made famous by the wife of Queen Elizabeth's 
coachman. 

Stockings and knit undergarments are simply devel- 
opments of the silk hose of Tudor times. The one 

[68] 



Tin: -TORY OF COSTUMES 

modifications than any other through the ages seems 
to have been the woman's skirt. Not but what this 
was modified and changed constantly, but the general 
contour remained the same, from the garment worn 
by Egyptian, Greek, and Roman women, through the 
Middle Ages down to the present time. 

The striking contrast between the gaudily dressed 
gallant during the centuries of display attire and his 
surroundings, Is shown in the reversal of these condi- 
tions at present. The modern well-dressed gentleman 
lives in a dwelling quite in keeping with his garments; 
or rather, the luxuriousness of his surroundings far 
exceeds that of his attire. In past centuries these condi- 
tions were reversed. In the I Ages the gentle- 
man dressed better than a modern prince and lived 
in surroundings inferior to those of a modern work- 
ingman. With smoking fireplaces and dripping lights, 
dirt floors strewn with rushes, and without even nec- 
essary articles for the toilet, how did the gaudy, silk- 
and velvet-covered creatures manage to keep them- 
selves and their finery clean? There can be but one 
inference: they didn't. 

'-//,:.'-. ?:-.:/.•:?:< ;■. w..-. <-//-; 7- \r 7/-: 

If an attempt were made to describe, even casually, 
anything like a representative list of the extraordinary 
costumes worn at various times during past centuries, 
volumes would be required. In fact, there are many- 
volumed works dealing with this subject in existence. 

[69] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

A few of these remarkable and grotesque garments 
are worth brief descriptions, as showing the contrast 
with the plain apparel of men and women in our own 
practical age. 

During the fifteenth century many remarkable modi- 
fications in the sleeves of garments were worn at various 
times. In Germany, for example, one costume of a 
gentleman was made with flowing sleeves reaching al- 
most to the ground, the right and left sleeves being of 
different design. Thus the left sleeve might be made as 
a long bag, perhaps two feet in diameter, of practically 
the same width at all points. The right sleeve, on the 
other hand, might be made funnel shaped, with a gap- 
ing wristband reaching to the ground when the hand was 
held at the waist. The waist of this garment was 
usually belted about the loins, the skirts reaching 
below the knees and slashed up the side to allow free- 
dom in walking — and incidentally to exhibit the gaudy, 
close-fitting trunks beneath. 

A century later the Germans were, perhaps, leaders 
in the very remarkable custom of dressing the two 
sides of the body in garments of absolutely different 
designs and colors. A gallant viewed from the left 
side, for example, might seem to be attired in a coat of 
green and white, with immense puffs at the shoulders 
tapering to a close-fitting, forearm sleeve. His hips 
might be surrounded with red and white puffs striped 
lengthwise, with the same colors formed into close-fitting 
hose reaching to the foot. Viewed from the opposite 
side there was a complete transformation in his appear- 
ance. His right sleeve might be red and blue, small 

[70] 



THE STORY OF COSTUMES 

and close-fitting above the elbow, but swelling into 
gorgeous puffs of immense size about the wrist. The 
puffings about the hips might be omitted; while in 
place of the plain striped hose of the left leg, the 
right one would be puffed and slashed, and made 
into folds of half a dozen colors down to the knee, 
and perhaps a plain simple color from that point to 
the ankle. 

This is but one of the hundreds of remarkable cos- 
tumes worn at that time, and is drawn from absolutely 
authentic sources. But every gallant apparently 
strove to produce some unique form of garment, more 
outlandish, if possible, than that of his neighbor, and 
the result was a motley array that beggars description. 
At the same time the women of the period were fre- 
quently costumed in dresses differing very little from 
some of the patterns of the nineteenth century. 

In this same period the " sober Englishman" was 
far from sober in his attire. He did not perhaps equal 
the German in the matter of fantastic design, but he 
was not far behind. He, too, loved flowing sleeves 
and puffs, and sometimes he wore a hood or cap with 
a peak behind that trailed to the ground, unless he 
tucked it into his girdle, or wrapped it about his neck, 
as he did upon occasion. 

His consort, meanwhile, wore garments puffed and 
sometimes hung about her by means of stays and whale- 
bones that suspended the garments at a considerable 
distance from the body, and must have given her the 
appearance of a movable tent. Her headdress was 
sometimes a yard or more high, with veil and streamers 

[71] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

reaching to the ground behind her. Sometimes her 
hands protruded from the sleeves ; or again they might 
be concealed in long flowing sleeves similar to those 
of her lord, and reaching to her ankles. 

On the whole, however, the women were perhaps 
less extravagant in their dresses than the men. But 
both sexes exhausted their ingenuity in devising new 
and outlandish costumes. Meanwhile the moralists 
and satirists, ably assisted by the clergy, were waging 
ceaseless war upon the fashions, although their com- 
bined efforts apparently had little effect. 

The Oriental custom of wearing wide flowing 
trousers gathered about the ankles seems never to have 
been popular, at least for any length of time, among the 
Western nations. The leg, from knee to ankle, was 
almost invariably clothed in some kind of tight-fitting 
hose, no matter what fantastic garments were worn 
above. Wide trousers, several yards in circumference 
were worn at times during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and 
seventeenth centuries, but these were gathered at the 
knee or just below it. In those centuries, also, the 
thighs were frequently puffed and padded, and the 
hips were sometimes surrounded with puffs of enor- 
mous dimensions. 

The Italians were the last to give up long monk- 
like garments for hose and trousers. Possibly their 
proximity to the Orient had something to do with this. 
But, whatever the cause, long robes resembling skirts 
were worn by Italian gentlemen long after such gar- 
ments had been abandoned by other European coun- 

[72] 



THE STORY OF COSTUMES 

tries. Even to-day long sleeveless cloaks reaching 
to the ground are worn by many men in Italy, possibly 
a survival of the old medieval robe. 

Curiously enough, some of the early Portuguese 
fashions more nearly resembled modern forms of male 
attire than those of any other nation for three cen- 
turies following. In the sixteenth century a costume 
was sometimes worn very much like that of a modern 
Mexican or Spaniard. This consisted of a broad- 
brimmed " cowboy" hat, a coat not unlike the modern 
frock coat except that it was belted, and trousers reach- 
ing to the ankle, rather wide but not gathered in at 
the bottom. Ruffs or lace were worn at the throat 
and about the wrists in place of linen collar and 
cuff, and a " Spanish cloak" in place of an overcoat; 
but otherwise the sixteenth-century Portuguese gal- 
lant would have passed muster as a twentieth-cen- 
tury Spaniard. 

The Church, which for many centuries wasted 
much oratory in preaching against extravagance in 
dress, did not set a very good example in practice. 
Many of the lower orders of monks, to be sure, dressed 
in the severest manner possible, but the superior dig- 
nitaries clung to gaudy colors and rich display — as 
they do still. Shortly after the fall of the Western 
Empire in 476 a.d. the dress, even of a bishop, was a 
plain, toga-like garment. But colors and decorations 
soon crept in, and by the tenth century the flashy robes 
even of an under-bishop rivaled the most gorgeous 
modern woman's gown. 

[73] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

FASHION VERSUS COMFORT 

Possibly the most remarkable and grotesque fashion 
in female attire, if the subject admits of superlatives in 
contrasting different periods, was that of the great hoop- 
skirt of the eighteenth century. The size of some of 
these skirts surpasses belief, frequently being so wide 
that damsels found it difficult to pass through some of 
the narrow streets of London and Paris. What must 
have happened when two determined hoop-wearers met 
in a narrow alley can only be conjectured. There may 
have been some unwritten "rules of the road" to cover 
such emergencies. 

By way of contrast to the wide, bell-shaped lower 
garment, a close-fitting bodice was worn, frequently 
sleeveless, and the hair was dressed low. The general 
appearance presented by the tiny body protruding 
above the dome-like structure of the hoop-skirt must 
have been "like the knob on a bell-jar.' , 

But the mere bodily discomfort of wearers and of 
others were not the only evil effects of these great 
hoop-skirts. At times they threatened the social 
equilibrium of nations, as happened in the case of 
France in 1728, "when hoop-skirts were the subject of 
serious consideration with the minister, Cardinal Fleury. 
When the queen attended the opera she was accus- 
tomed to sit between the two princesses, and the result 
was that her Majesty was completely hidden by the 
hoops of her companions. In French eyes this 
amounted to a positive scandal, but it was impossible 
that the queen should go to the opera unattended, 

[74] 



THE STORY OF COSTUMES 

and it was equally out of the question for the prin- 
cesses to go without their hoops. What was to be done ? 
Only one thing: a space must be cleared about the 
queen. Orders were accordingly given that a fauteuil 
should be left vacant either side of the queen. This 
instruction was carried out, but the princesses had no 
intention of being eclipsed in their turn, and demanded 
that a similar space should be left between them and 
the duchesses. 

"It is related that a French lady, who went to con- 
fession in a hoop, was quite unable to squeeze herself 
through the door of the confessional and approach the 
grating. After repeated struggles she was obliged to 
give up the attempt, and return home with her load of 
unconfessed faults." 

During all the centuries of caprice and change in 
fashion, only one Western nation has remained prac- 
tically unchanged, even until the present time, in the 
matter of dress. This nation is Scotland. All through 
the ages the kilt has remained the characteristic dress 
of the Scot, and while there have been minor modi- 
fications from time to time, there has been little tendency 
to depart from the original garment worn at the earliest 
historical periods. The Scotch regiments that marched 
against the Boers a few years ago, only differed in 
general appearance from the clansmen who fought 
under Bruce and Wallace in the weapons they carried. 
And these same soldiers exemplified the tenacity of 
purpose that has kept the kilt unchanged for cen- 
turies, when they declined to discard them for less 
conspicuous garments, in the face of the terrible 

[75] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

slaughter brought about by the conspicuousness of 
their attire. 

THE RETURN TO THE COMMON-SENSE AGE IN CLOTHING 

What the immediate cause may have been that 
led up to the abandonment of the extravagant and 
grotesque costumes of the eighteenth century and the 
gradual adoption of men's clothing which reverted 
almost to primitive simplicity, is difficult to say. It 
is probable that no single cause was responsible for 
this change, any more than for the other revolutionary 
changes that make the nineteenth century a distinctive 
one in the history of the world. 

It is difficult to show that the enormous strides made 
in scientific discovery had any direct influence upon 
fashions in clothing; and yet it is probable that indi- 
rectly, at least, this influence was enormous. The 
discoveries in science explained in a common-sense 
way many hitherto mysterious phenomena and tended 
paradoxically to simplify, while extending, all fields 
of thought. And since this general tendency was so 
universal, it may be that it affected people's taste in 
clothing as well as their views in many other fields of 
thought. 

In recent years the great revolution, not only in 
fashions of clothing, but also in the methods of making 
garments, has been influenced enormously by the sew- 
ing-machine. But sewing-machines played no part 
in the beginning of this revolution, as they were not 
then invented. It must have been some other in- 
fluence, therefore, which gradually and unconsciously 

[76] 



THE STORY OF COSTUMES 

made itself felt in the closing years of the eighteenth 
century, that resulted finally in the complete revolution 
during the last half of the nineteenth century. 

The age of modern clothing may be said to date 
from the going-out of powdered wigs, startling colors, 
fine fabrics in men's coats and waistcoats, and the 
abandonment of knee-breeches. As regards these 
last, it is an open question whether the modern garment 
that has replaced them is an improvement from the 
common-sense point of view, and this is perhaps em- 
phasized by the fact that in recent years there has been 
a tendency both in civilians and in soldiers to return 
to the shorter type of garment. 

The transition period of garment-wearing began 
early in the nineteenth century when waistcoats were 
shortened, lace and ruffs abandoned, and the knick- 
erbocker, which until that time had extended only to 
the knee or just below it, was lengthened so as to reach 
to the middle of the calf. This again was lengthened 
to the ankle, and was finally fastened there, not as 
with the Oriental fashion of gathering about the foot, 
but with a strap buckled underneath it. 

At the present time the summer garments worn 
by men and women, represent, perhaps, the most 
practical and simple costume ever worn except by the 
most primitive races. Shirt-waists for women and 
plain skirts, negligee shirts for men, with hats of a 
relatively simple type for both sexes, and shoes with 
most practical types of heels, combine to form wearing- 
apparel perhaps as nearly ideal as is possible under 
modern conditions. 

[77] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

THE WHOLESALE MANUFACTURE OF CLOTHING 

The manufacture of ready-made clothing had the 
most revolutionary effect upon all forms of clothing 
for both sexes. In this revolution, the sewing-machine 
has, of course, played the all important part, and yet 
the revolution had begun several years before the sew- 
ing-machine had been invented. As the United States 
was responsible for the development of this machine 
so also this country seems to have taken the initiative 
in the manufacture of ready-made clothing and has 
held the position preeminently ever since. 

Just when the manufacture of clothing began as 
a separate industry cannot be determined accurately, 
but it seems certain that the first steps in this direction 
were taken during the first or second decade of the 
nineteenth century. At this time certain New York 
manufacturers began putting out ready-made garments, 
among these being George Opdyke, who was once 
mayor of New York. About 1831, he began manu- 
facturing clothing in an establishment in Hudson Street, 
which he conducted on a small retail scale. Other 
manufacturers soon fell into line and by 1835 medium- 
grade clothing for men was being manufactured whole- 
sale, although in limited quantities. Some time before 
this it had been customary for the stores in seaport 
towns to manufacture and keep in stock the coarse 
clothing outfits used by sailors, but such clothing was 
made on a relatively small scale and consisted only 
of the most simple type of garments. 

From this small beginning in clothing manufacture 

[78] 



THE STORY OF COSTUMES 

in the third decade of a century, the industry gradually 
increased, until by the time of the invention of the 
practical sewing-machine in 1846, it had become quite 
an important industry. But the great impetus to this 
industry was given in that year by the introduction 
of machines which were capable of performing the 
work of three or four seamstresses. From that time 
until the outbreak of the Civil War there was a steady 
increase in the production of clothing, more particu- 
larly that of cheaper grades. 

The greatest impetus to wholesale production was 
that given by the Civil War itself, when the government 
was forced suddenly to provide clothing for hundreds 
of thousands of men. To meet this demand facto- 
ries were established, improved machinery and methods 
introduced, and as the demand lasted for a period of 
about four years, the industry became an established 
one, and ready-made clothing a staple product. 

Since the Civil War, however, the methods pre- 
vailing in the manufacture of clothing have greatly 
changed. Before that time it was mainly a household 
industry, and there were comparatively few manu- 
facturers having factories of their own. Most ready- 
made clothing was made by journeyman tailors, 
particularly after the introduction of the sewing- 
machine. During the spring and fall seasons these 
men worked for custom tailors, returning to the shops 
of the manufacturers for work between seasons. Most 
of these tailors at that time were English, Scotch, or 
American, and all were skilled workmen capable of 
turning out an entire garment. A little later the Irish 

[79] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

came conspicuously into the trade, and still later the 
Germans entered the field in great numbers, intro- 
ducing a system of division of labor in garment-making, 
that laid the foundation for modern methods as now 
practised. These Germans worked in families, and 
the garments were made in their homes, the father 
doing the machine work, while the mother and children 
assisted in basting, making buttonholes, sewing on 
buttons, and finishing. 

THE "TASK SYSTEM" INTRODUCED 

This system continued until about the beginning 
of the last quarter of the century, when, following the 
great influx of Russian Jews, the obnoxious "task 
system" was introduced. By this system the work 
was done by " teams" consisting of three men — an 
operator, a baster, and a finisher. Besides this team 
there was usually a presser, and one or more girls for 
sewing on buttons and making buttonholes. 

Each member of the team made his particular part 
of the coat, and the amount of work possible to be 
produced with such a combination was a great increase 
over the older system. As a rule, the contractor was 
a member of the team, at least until the business had 
developed until he could run three or more teams in 
his shop, when he became a bushelman, or overseer. 
His workmen were paid by the week, working a stipu- 
lated number of hours each day, and while there was 
no contract as to the amount of work which they should 
produce, there was a tacit understanding as to the 

[so] 



THE STORY OF COSTUMES 

number of coats or suits that should be completed 
each week. 

This overseer obtained his goods from the manu- 
facturer, and was held responsible for them, and during 
times of prosperity both he and his workmen received 
reasonable remuneration. But when times were hard, 
and labor correspondingly plentiful, the manufacturer 
frequently cut the price paid the contractor, compelling 
him to work for less money or remain idle. The over- 
seer would then in turn state the condition of things 
to his employees, offering them their choice of working 
for reduced wages, or of increasing the weekly out- 
put by working more hours. Almost invariably the 
employees chose the alternative of longer hours, with 
the result that while receiving only the same pay as 
before, they sometimes produced more than double 
the amount as when working under the older system. 

INCREASING DIVISION OF LABOR 

The task system was the beginning of specializa- 
tion in the clothing industry. By that system five 
persons worked on a single garment, each perf o ming 
a specified task and completing it considerably jnore 
quickly than at the rate of five to one, as against each 
person finishing an entire garment. But this system 
was so obnoxious on account of the many hardships 
imposed upon the workmen by the manufacturers 
and sub-contractors, that very soon what is known 
as the "Boston" system or "factory" system became 
popular. 

VOL. DC. — 6 [ 8 1 ] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

In this, the specialization in the work was still fur- 
ther extended until in some factories as many as one 
hundred workmen, each performing different tasks, 
were required to make an ordinary coat. By this 
system little skill was required on the part of any of the 
workmen except the finishers, and even these were 
relatively unskilled as compared with the old type of 
journeyman tailors. Any workman, even of mediocre 
intelligence, could quickly learn to sew together a few 
pieces of cloth cut into definite shapes in a certain man- 
ner. He not only learned to put them together but to 
do this particular part of the work much more rapidly 
than even a very skilful tailor. The result was that 
the manufacturer, by employing a few skilled finishers 
and a great number of unskilled workmen performing 
a single task, could produce in the aggregate a far 
greater number of garments made equally well in a 
given time than by the older system. 

Even the factories themselves became specialized, 
certain factories only making coats, others vests, and 
still others trousers, only a comparatively few attempt- 
ing to turn out the entire garment. The wholesale 
dealer who had contracted for a thousand suits of a 
certain pattern might receive the coats from a factory 
located in New York City, the vests from a factory 
in Jersey City, and the trousers perhaps from Phil- 
adelphia. 

As a rule these factories were independent estab- 
lishments knowing nothing of the others, each finishing 
its own particular garments, which were assembled in 
the establishment of the wholesaler. 

[82] 



THE STORY OF COSTUMES 

STEAM AND ELECTRICITY IN FACTORIES 

For many years after ready-made clothing had 
become a standard factory-product, about the only 
mechanical aids to the garment-maker were the sewing- 
machines. Garments were still cut out by the time- 
honored shears, pressed with old-fashioned flat-irons, 
and buttonholes worked and buttons sewed on by 
hand. About 1870, however, the first mechanical 
substitute for shears came into use. This was in the 
form of a machine carrying great knife-blades which 
worked like saws back and forth, through several 
thicknesses of clothing. These first straight-bladed 
cutting-machines were quickly supplanted by ma- 
chines made with circular disk blades, cutting like 
buzz-saws, using a knife-edge instead of teeth. With 
these machines almost any number of thicknesses 
of cloth might be cut at one time, a hundred pieces 
being turned out as quickly as a single one could 
be cut by the old hand-method. If a hundred sleeve- 
pieces of the same size were to be cut, a hundred pieces 
of cloth were clamped together, the pattern laid out, 
and the cloth sent to the cutting-knife. A few rapid 
passages of the blade, and a hundred sleeve-pieces 
were ready for the sewing-machines. A single work- 
man controlled the machine that cut from fifty to a 
hundred times faster than the hand- workman, and at 
the end of the day he had neither aching fingers, arms, 
nor shoulders, as in the case of a hand-workman. 

Another machine that came quickly into use was the 
buttonhole cutter. This could turn out the work not at 

[83] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

quite the same wholesale rates as the cutting-machine, 
but at the same time it was much faster than any 
hand-methods. By the older method buttonholes 
could be cut in a hundred coats in about three hours 
and a half; but by the new machine this time was 
reduced to less than twenty minutes. 

One of the slower processes in garment-making is 
that of sponging and shrinking the cloth. For centuries 
this has been done by the use of the sponge and flat- 
iron, the time required by an average workman to 
shrink a coat being about fifteen minutes. At the pres- 
ent time the shrinking is done by the steam-sponging- 
machine with which an average workman can shrink 
a coat in something less than two minutes, with less 
exertion than that expended in the older process. 

A somewhat similar device in the form of gas or 
electric flat-irons is now replacing the old-fashioned 
iron heated on the familiar octagonal soft-coal stove. 
The first step in this direction was the flat-iron heated 
by means of charcoal — a miniature stove in itself. 
But such flat-irons were not entirely satisfactory, from 
the facts that the temperature could not be controlled 
and that they required close watching. But by using 
gas or electricity in place of charcoal, an iron was in- 
vented that would remain at any desired temperature for 
an indefinite length of time. From a hygienic stand- 
point this was one of the most beneficial innovations 
in the workshops. By the older method the air of the 
shop was vitiated in the winter time by stoves, while 
in the summer time the same shops were heated to 
suffocation. With the gas or electric flat-iron only 

[8 4 ] 



THE STORY OF COSTUMES 

the heat of the iron itself is given off, and with the 
electric iron, at least, there was no vitiation of the 
atmosphere. Both these types of irons are great 
time-savers, from the fact that there is no stopping 
to test or change irons. The danger of having the 
iron too hot or too cold is also avoided. 

Of course the great time-saver in the factory is 
the sewing-machine in its various forms. Aside from 
the cutting and pressing almost the entire process of 
manufacture is now performed on special sewing- 
machines, practically no handwork being done on 
the cheaper garments. Many of these are still run 
by hand, but steam and electricity, particularly the 
latter, are rapidly replacing foot-power, as referred to 
more extensively in the chapter on the sewing-machine. 
Among the remarkable adaptations of the sewing- 
machine, are the ones for working buttonholes 
and sewing on buttons. The first of these outstrips 
the seamstress some thirty to one, while buttons can 
be sewed on something like eight times faster than by 
hand. 

While the proportion of ready-to-wear clothing 
manufactured is much larger for men's clothes than 
for women's, the latter is a growing industry increas- 
ing steadily in importance. The first manufactures 
of this kind, in the form of cloaks and outer garments, 
were made in the early sixties, and cloak manufacture 
was about the only one engaged in extensively until 
about a quarter of a century ago. Since that time com- 
plete outfits of ready-made garments of every descrip- 
tion have been in the market. 

[85] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

The system of manufacture, however, has not been 
developed on the enormous scale as that of male cloth- 
ing. Many extensive shirt-waist factories and general 
garment factories are in existence, and are increasing 
constantly in number, but the "task" and "sweat- 
shop" systems have never been developed extensively 
in this industry. 



[86] 



IV 

THE SEWING-MACHINE 

ABOUT half a century ago, when the sewing- 
machine was still in the early stages of devel- 
L opment, an eminent lawyer, pleading the cause 
of its inventor, told eloquently of the wonders it had 
already accomplished. "The sewing-machine," he 
said, "has opened the doors of workshops, tainted by 
the pale victims of the hand-needle, whose long and 
confining imprisonment to its service was preying 
upon their health, and rapidly fitting them for the 
premature grave to which it had already hurried mil- 
lions of their sex; and the continued tax upon whose 
vision, in scanning minutely the close relation between 
the needle-point and the last stitch in the process of 
sewing, had already so affected their eyesight as to 
threaten them with a speedy discharge from employ- 
ment for the want of ability to see. 

"The sewing-machine has called them out of such 
employment, and tenders them a more healthy occu- 
pation and higher wages for less time. It has called 
multitudes out of the non-productive, time-wasting, 
and health-destroying service of hand-needle sewing, 
where much labor was bestowed and much time spent 
to produce small results — and as a consequence all 
other expenses of the business in which it was done 

[8 7 ] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

were accumulated to such an extent as not to afford 
liberal pay to the laborer, and has introduced them 
into other occupations more favorable to their health, 
and in which larger results are produced by them in 
less time and by less labor: and the result is, that 
higher wages can. in consequence, be afforded and is 
tendered to them. 

"The sewing-machine has entered the dwellings of 
poverty, met there the widowed mother, upon whom 
hand-needle service, in her efforts to feed her off- 
spring, was already inflicting the penalty of corroding 
and emaciating disease, and taking her by the hand, 
extricating her from the grasp of exacting necessity 
which tied her to the needle, and led her out, and 
pointed her to a way of health and plenty." 

If a man could thus cam' conviction by the weight 
of overwhelming truth at that time, what might be 
said now, in the light of intervening years of prog- 
ress, when the social fabric of communities — possibly 
nations — has been changed bv this device. 

In the opening years of the nineteenth century, 
when the cotton-gin, spinning- frame, and power-loom 
had made it possible to produce more thread and cloth 
than could be utilized by seamstresses sewing by hand, 
a great want was felt of some mechanical device which 
would shorten the labor of putting the cloth together, 
just as other machines had shortened the process of 
making it. But for many years the problem remained 
unsolved, despite the fact that hundreds of inventors 
were attempting its solution. 

The difficulty lav in the fact that most inventors 

[88] 



THE SEWING-MACHINE 

attempted to make the machines do the work of sewing 
along somewhat the same lines as it was done by hand 
— that is, through-and -through sewing, with a needle 
having an eye at the opposite end from the point. 
Until this idea was abandoned there was little hope 
of producing a practical mechanical substitute for 
hand-sewing. For the operation of sewing as per- 
formed by the seamstress is far too complicated to 
be performed by machinery, and the kind of stitch 
employed is not practical for mechanical sewing- 
machines. But, as we now know, neither the principle 
of sewing employed by the seamstress, nor the kind of 
stitch she uses, are necessary, and it w r as not until this 
idea was grasped by inventors — the idea that new 
principles might be employed — that the sewing-machine 
became a practical possibility. 

The first attempts tending in the right direction 
seem to have been taken in England by Charles F. 
Weisenthal, in 1755, who patented a machine for 
sewing hand-embroidery. This machine used a double- 
pointed needle with an eye located in the center, 
but no attempts were made to adopt it for sewing 
cloth. Various machines, employing something the 
same principle, some of them using rows of needles in 
place of a single one, followed this first, a few of them 
fairly successful for embroidery work. Most of these 
machines were designed in England, American in- 
ventors not yet having entered the field. 

As early as 1790 an Englishman named Thomas 
Saint conceived an idea which, had it been carried out, 
would certainly have led to the perfecting of a prac- 

[89] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

tical machine many years earlier than Howe's cul- 
minating achievement. But although Saint filed his 
drawings in the English Patent Office, it is not recorded 
that the inventor ever believed sufficiently in his 
conception to construct a machine along the lines of 
his specifications. Both the man and his designs 
were lost sight of until many years after the perfec- 
tion of the practical sewing-machine. 

THE FIRST PRACTICAL SEWING-MACHINE 

It was not until 1830 that a practical sewing-machine 
for sewing cloth was made. Then a Frenchman, 
Barthelemy Thimonnier, devised such a machine and 
took out patents. Improvements quickly followed 
this first attempt, and by 184 1 eighty of these machines, 
clumsy affairs made mostly of wood, were being used 
in a Paris shop for making army clothing. 

These machines, like the one designed by Saint, 
made use of the vertical needle descending from the 
end of an arm, and piercing the cloth held upon a flat 
table beneath. The needle was depressed by a treadle 
and cord, and raised by a spring. The needle itself 
was barbed like a crochet-hook, and worked by plung- 
ing through the goods, catching a lower thread from 
a thread carrier and looper beneath, bringing up a 
loop which it laid upon the upper surface of the cloth. 
A second descent brought up another loop, and en- 
chained it with the first one, thus forming a chain- 
stitch with the loops above. 

That this machine was practical is shown by the 

[90] 




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THE SEWING-MACHINE 

fact that eighty of them were in use for making clothing 
in 1 84 1. In that year, however, a mob attacked the 
shop containing the machines, and destroyed them. 
The reason for this act was the usual one common 
among European workmen at that period — the fear 
that their employment would be taken away by these 
labor-saving devices. 

For a few years that attack retarded the progress 
of inventors, but about 1847 Thimonnier appeared in 
the field with machines still further improved, capable 
of making two hundred stitches a minute, and sewing 
any material from thin cloth to thick leather. Once 
more the fears of the seamstress were aroused, and in 
1848 a mob again attacked the shop of the inventor, 
and not only destroyed his machines but attempted 
to kill him. 

From the effects of this attack the inventor was 
never able to rally, either in spirit or financially. He 
had been struggling for years in poverty, and it was 
only through the generosity of admiring friends that 
he had been able to set up his first shop, and later his 
second one. When this last was destroyed no further 
aid was forthcoming, and the man whose machine 
came so near to revolutionizing the industrial world, 
died a little later in poverty and actual want. 

AMERICAN INVENTORS ENTER THE FIELD 

About this time American inventors came conspicu- 
ously into the field. John J. Greenough, in 1842, had 
patented a machine using a double-pointed needle 

[91] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

and short thread. It was designed primarily for 
sewing leather, and was made so that an awl pierced 
a hole for the passage of the needle. The material 
to be sewed was held in clamps, and fixed in a rack 
which could be moved both ways, alternately, to pro- 
duce a back stitch, or allowed to continue in one di- 
rection for making a shoemaker's stitch. The needle 
was passed through the leather by means of pincers, 
the thread being drawn out by weights. In actual 
practice this machine did not work well, but was note- 
worthy because some of the principles involved were 
utilized later in the practical sewing-machines. 

But no machine sewing with a chain-stitch, like that 
of Thimonnier, could be entirely satisfactory. One 
great step, that of placing the eye of the needle at the 
point, had been taken, but another was necessary, 
and this first one was not fully appreciated until the 
invention of the lock-stitch — the stitch made by pass- 
ing another thread through the loop formed by an eye- 
pointed needle, the second thread interlocking with 
the first in the fabric. 

This idea seems to have been first conceived by 
Walter Hunt of New York, in 1834, who constructed 
a machine using a curved needle having an eye near 
the point, driven by a vibrating arm. This needle 
formed a loop of thread under the cloth, through which 
a thread was carried by an oscillating shuttle. In 
this way a lock-stitch was made in very much the same 
manner as in the modern sewing-machine. This 
machine, although it was really a forerunner of all 
practical sewing-machines, was thought so little of, 

[92] 



THE SEWING-MACHINE 

even by its inventor, that it was sold for a trifle to a 
blacksmith named Arrowsmith. Twenty years later, 
when the possibilities of the sewing-machine had been 
demonstrated by Elias Howe, Hunt attempted to 
assert his prior claim to a patent, but this was denied 
him on the ground of abandonment. 

The field of successful invention had now been 
opened up in America, and thenceforth practically 
every important improvement was made in the United 
States. Many inventors had entered the field, but as 
yet no one had solved the problem satisfactorily. 

THE COMING OF HOWE 

"But 1845 was on i ts way/' says Gifford, "and 
bearing with it a messenger of reform — a young man, 
an American, poor in money but rich in genius, feeble 
in influence but strong in mind. Cambridgeport, 
Massachusetts, was to have the honor of his birth- 
place, and Nature was preparing him for the work 
which all others had failed to accomplish. She well 
knew how to do it. She always knows from what 
ranks to pick her candidates for great things, and she 
equips them with proper habiliments for their mission. 
Hopes and anticipations of his success were not to be 
encumbered by present luxury and ease; he was not 
to be attracted to, or entertained by, present pleasures; 
he was to be trained for taking mental leave of present 
surrounding objects and things, and sending his 
thoughts and projecting his researches far in advance 
of the front ranks of his contemporaries. He was to 

[93] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

be endowed with remarkable energy, patience, self- 
reliance, and penetrating mental vision; and these, 
under the command of superior judgment, led by fear- 
less ambition, were to be pressed into action by present 
obscurity and neglect ; the contrast between the shades 
of surrounding poverty and resplendent glory in an- 
ticipation of attaining what the best efforts of the ablest 
minds had failed to do, was to constantly bear upon 
him, and resist the discouraging effects of successive 
disappointments. This was Elias Howe, Jr., and he 
was destined to become, as results show he was, one 
of the greatest inventors of his age, and, through his 
invention, one of the greatest benefactors of his race. 

"He espoused the great and benevolent cause of 
putting the world in possession of the art of machine- 
sewing. He was protected from the discouraging 
effects of the results of others' efforts by being kept 
in ignorance of them. He was not to know of the 
abortions of Greenough, Corlis, and Thimonnier, or 
of the experiments of Hunt. He struck out a new 
course for research and experiment, gradually over- 
came the difficulties which presented themselves and 
at length succeeded in exhibiting the trophy of com- 
plete success. And what was it ? What did it consist 
of? What rendered it a thing of so much power and 
value? The answer is, that it consisted of bringing 
together for the first time, and organizing in harmoni- 
ous and effective relations, the great, essential features 
indispensable to a practical sewing-machine." 

This invention of Howe's combined the eye-pointed 
needle with the shuttle for forming the stitch and the 

[94] 



THE SEWING-MACHINE 

intermittent feed for carrying the material forward 
as each stitch was formed. The device for thus feed- 
ing the cloth consisted of a thin strip of metal provided 
with a row of pins on one edge, but the cloth to be sewed 
was not held in the horizontal position as at present 
but carried in a vertical position. Neither did the cloth 
run through continuously, but was fed the length of a 
plate, and had to be rehung as often as the length of 
the plate had been traversed. The curved eye-pointed 
needle used was attached on the end of a vibrating 
lever, which also carried the upper thread. The lower 
thread was passed between the needle and the upper 
thread by means of a shuttle working on the same 
principle as the modern one. 

Foreseeing the possibilities of his invention, Howe 
exhausted his scanty means in taking out a patent, 
and constructing a machine which he deposited as a 
model in the United States Patent Office. He then 
cast about to find capital for pushing his enterprise, 
but failing in this he was compelled to dispose of his 
patent for a sufficient sum to carry him to England, 
where a corset-manufacturer had secured his rights 
to the patent on the payment of the equivalent of about 
one thousand dollars. 

While perfecting this machine and adapting it to 
corset-making, Howe engaged to work for this manu- 
facturer at a nominal salary. For some reason that 
is not apparent he was unable to satisfy the wishes of 
his employer, and in a few months retraced his steps to 
the United States, poorer, if possible, than ever before. 
Not disheartened, however, he succeeded in securing 

[95] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

a half interest that had been conveyed to his father 
before his departure for England, and at once began 
suits in the Boston and New York courts against man- 
ufacturers who were making machines infringing on 
his patents. 

The legal controversy was long and bitterly con- 
tested, but in the end Howe succeeded in establishing 
his claims. By this time, however, sewing-machines 
had become necessities, and the inventor began reap- 
ing his reward by compelling manufacturers using 
his patent to pay a bounty of twenty-five dollars for 
each machine manufactured, or to cease manufac- 
turing. 

SUNDRY IMPROVEMENTS 

Such machines were crude affairs, with vertical 
table and intermittent feed; but in 1849, John Bach- 
elder made the next fundamental and important step 
of combining the horizontal table and continuous 
feed device. The feed consisted of an endless band of 
leather set with small steel points. These points pro- 
jected up through the horizontal table and penetrated 
the material to be sewed, carrying it by an intermittent 
motion to and beyond the needle. 

This was a great improvement over Howe's device, 
but was entirely superseded by the invention of Allen 
B. Wilson, two years later. This was what is known 
as the " four-motion feed," which is noted for its sim- 
plicity of action and admirable adaptability to the 
purpose for which it was designed, and is still a popu- 
lar one. It consists of "a serrated plate, which rises 

[96] 




EARLY TYPES OF SEWING-MACHINES 

The upper picture shows an exact copy of the first successful lock-stitch 
sewing-machine made by Elias Howe, in 1845. The cloth to be sewn was held 
vertically pinned to a thin strip of metal made for the purpose. The lower shows 
one of the first Singer sewing-machines— the type of all modern machines- 
made in 1854, and still in working order. 



THE SEWING-MACHINE 

through a groove in the table on which the material 
is fed, and by a horizontal motion carries the material 
forward the length of the stitch, when it drops below 
the surface of the table and is carried back to its former 
position at the end of the groove, thus describing a 
motion following the four sides of a parallelogram. 
The cloth is held in place by means of a presser-foot 
descending from the head of the overhanging arm. 
The motion which carries the cloth forward is so regu- 
lated as to take place while the needle is above the 
surface, and by limiting the extent of this motion 
the stitch is easily adjusted." 

But the ingenuity of Wilson was not exhausted by 
this single great improvement in the sewing-machine. 
The following year he invented a new device for exe- 
cuting the lock-stitch, which consisted of a rotating 
hook used in place of a shuttle for interlocking the 
upper thread with the lower. This device, with some 
modifications and improvements, is still the distinguish- 
able feature of a certain well-known sewing-machine. 

About this time a New York mechanic named Isaac 
M. Singer became interested in sewing-machines, and 
very soon constructed a machine from a design of 
his own, which was a great improvement, in many 
ways, over previous ones. This was the first machine 
having a rigid . overhanging arm to guide the vertical 
needle, which is now the popular type of household 
machine. But besides this novel feature, there was a 
departure in the feed, using what was called a "wheel- 
feed." 

Since the general style of the original Singer machine 
vol. K.— 7 [97] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

serves as a model for most modern sewing-machines, 
it may be more fully described here. "A straight 
shaft in the overhanging arm imparted the motion 
to the needle, and the shuttle was driven in its race 
below the feed-table by a mechanism deriving its 
motion from the shaft by means of gearing. The feed 
consisted of an iron wheel with a corrugated surface, 
the top of which was slightly elevated above the level 
surface of the table. By an intermittent motion the 
feed carried the cloth forward between stitches with- 
out injury to the fabric. This device permitted the 
cloth to be turned in any direction by the operator 
while sewing, which was impossible with the styles 
of feed which perforated the goods. The material 
was held in place by a presser-foot alongside the 
needle. This presser-foot embraced an important 
feature possessed by no other sewing-machine up to 
that time — the yielding spring, which would permit of 
passage over seams, and adjust itself automatically to 
any thickness of cloth. In addition to this original lock- 
stitch machine, Mr. Singer afterwards contrived several 
inventions which contributed materially toward the im- 
provement of the sewing-machine. He produced a 
sewing-machine which used the single chain stitch, and 
also a double chain-stitch machine for ornamental work 
and embroidery. " 

THE PERFECTED MACHINE AND ITS CONQUEST 

"The sewing-machine had now arrived at a stage 
when all its essential features had been discovered by 
inventors and so far perfected as to demonstrate their 

[98] 



THE SEWING-MACHINE 

practicability. It only remained for men of energy 
and business ability to apply themselves to the work of 
manufacture and to the development of facilities for 
marketing their products. Men who early appre- 
ciated the importance of the sewing-machine as a 
factor in the commercial advancement of the world 
applied themselves with great zeal to the promotion 
of the industry. Factories were established in Bridge- 
port, Boston, New York, and other cities for the ex- 
clusive manufacture of sewing-machines. Bridgeport 
has always held a conspicuous place in the indus- 
try, and the history of the development and manu- 
facture of the sewing-machine will always be closely 
associated with that Connecticut city. The impor- 
tance of New York city as a commercial center was 
early appreciated by sewing-machine manufacturers, 
and it was made the principal sales -depot for that in- 
dustry by establishments located throughout New 
England. One of the leading concerns then in exist- 
ence for the manufacture of sewing-machines carried 
on its operations in New York city. 

"In 1855 litigation arose, involving three of the 
principal sewing-machine companies then in existence. 
It was claimed by each of the parties concerned that 
the others were infringing upon certain of their patent 
rights. Numerous suits were instituted on these pat- 
ents, and when the contesting parties finally came to- 
gether in 1856 for trying some of the cases in court, 
an amicable settlement was agreed upon whereby the 
parties to the suits were to pool their patents, thus 
permitting any one of them to use the patents of all 

[99] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

the others so far as might be necessary in the con- 
struction of their sewing-machines, and to protect 
the interests of all from infringements by outside 
parties. These patents and privileges were not con- 
fined to the three original parties in the combination, 
but were available to all manufacturers upon the pay- 
ment of a fee, which was very small compared with 
the exorbitant bounty collected by Howe. No re- 
strictions were placed upon manufacturers in regard 
to the price at which their products were to be sold, 
and the markets were open to fair competition by all 
on the merits of the several machines. The combina- 
tion continued in existence, with Mr. Howe as a mem- 
ber, until the expiration of the extended term of his 
patent, in 1867, and was then continued by the other 
members until the expiration of the Bachelder patent 
in 1877. 

"The sewing-machines manufactured prior to the 
Singer, and many of them long after, used the vibrat- 
ing arm for imparting motion to the needle. This 
result was accomplished either by means of the vibra- 
tory arm actuating a needle-bar carrying a straight 
needle, or by means of the vibratory arm and curved 
needle. It is obvious that sewing-machines constructed 
on either of these principles could not be enlarged, 
or decreased, in size without destroying their effective- 
ness; on the one hand the lengthening of the arm 
would naturally increase both the power required to 
operate it, and its liability to spring, and thus affect 
the proper action of the needle; on the other hand, 
decreasing the size of the arm would necessarily in- 

[100] 



THE SEWING-MACHINE 

crease the curve of the needle and contract the space 
for turning and handling the work. Singer's arrange- 
ment of the rigid overhanging arm made it practicable 
to enlarge the machine to any desired extent, and added 
great solidity and strength to the machine, thus making 
it available either for doing the heaviest kinds of work 
or for sewing the lightest fabrics. The general style 
of the original Singer machine has been universally 
copied, and serves as a model for most of the machines 
now manufactured. 

"The work of adapting the sewing-machine to the 
various kinds of stitching required in the variety of 
manufacturing and mechanical industries to which 
it has been applied, was early taken up by Isaac M. 
Singer, Allen B. Wilson, and others, and has been 
successfully continued by later inventors. Machines 
stitching with waxed thread have been perfected for 
use in the factory manufacture of boots and shoes, 
as well as in the manufacture of saddlery and harness 
and various other articles of leather. Heavy-power 
machines are used in the manufacture of awnings, 
tents, sails, canvas belts, and articles of a like nature. 
Specially constructed machines for stitching gloves, 
and others for sewing the seams of carpets, sewing 
the ends of filled bags, stitching brooms, embroider- 
ing, and doing various other work, are produced by 
the leading sewing-machine manufacturers. Machines 
for working button-holes and sewing on buttons have 
been made very effective in their operation, and pro- 
duce a quality of work equal to the hand product at a 
greatly increased rate of speed. 

[roi] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

" Inventions covering the sewing-machine and its 
attachments are numerous, and patents for them are 
continually being granted. The same is true of the 
machinery used in producing the various interchange- 
able parts of the sewing-ma chine. The American 
principle of making all parts of the machine inter- 
changeable has been carried to the fullest extent in 
this industry. Machines for producing the most 
intricate parts of the sewing-machine are so perfected 
that they perform their work with remarkable speed 
and exactness. The special tools required to make 
the various parts of sewing-machine often require 
more inventive talent in their construction than the 
machine manufactured. In the larger factories the 
experimental department is one of the most important 
and expensive. Here the inventor has every facility 
for developing new ideas and putting the results to 
preliminary tests. When, after a great deal of time 
and labor has been expended on an invention, and it 
has reached an apparently perfect condition, it is sent 
to a factory engaged in the class of work for which it 
is designed, and is thoroughly tested. If its opera- 
tion proves satisfactory, a special plant of machinery 
is installed for the manufacture of the new machine or 
attachment, so that any number of duplicates can be 
made. After all this expensive preparation and ex- 
periment, the invention may be soon replaced by some- 
thing better, and abandoned." 



[102] 



V 

CLOTHING THE EXTREMITIES 

THE custom of wearing some protection for the 
foot was undoubtedly adopted by primitive 
man very early in the period of his history. 
It is probable that this custom did not originate en- 
tirely through a desire to find some protection for the 
soles of his feet against injurious objects, but rather 
as a protection against cold. It is known that among 
any race of men which goes barefoot constantly from 
infancy the cuticle of the sole of the foot becomes so 
thick and callous as to have almost the consistency of 
horn, and a power of resistance almost as great as that 
of the hoofs of animals. Among certain South Ameri- 
can Indians, living in the regions of lava beds, this 
thick callosity of the soles is so developed that they 
walk with impunity over fields of broken lava-glass. 

Certainly in such regions some artificial protection 
of the foot is needed if it is needed anywhere. And 
yet these Indians, although familiar with leather, 
never use it as a protection for their feet. This seems 
to bear out the theory that primitive man did not begin 
wearing shoes as a protection against injury, but as 
a protection against cold. For the natives of all tropi- 
cal climates are almost invariably barefooted races 
regardless of the nature of their surroundings. 

It is probable, therefore, that the custom of wearing 

[103] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

protection for the feet did not begin until primitive 
man commenced migrating from the tropical regions 
into colder latitudes. But even in such latitudes, shoes 
or moccasins would probably have been worn only 
during the colder months of the year, as in the case of 
clothing, and discarded during the warmer months. 
But, as will be remembered by every boy who has had 
the privilege of going barefoot in the summer time, 
confining the foot in any kind of protective shoe for 
several months tends to soften the callous soles, and 
the resulting tenderness does not disappear for some 
time after the shoes are discarded. So the primitive 
men who had protected their feet by rude skin shoes 
during the several winter months, would find in the 
spring that their feet had lost much of their tough, re- 
sisting power of a few months before. 

As regions further and further north were invaded, 
where the winters were long and the summers com- 
paratively short, the time would come when the shoe- 
wearing season would be longer than the barefooted 
season, and the need of some protection to the soles 
would be felt acutely when the season for discarding 
foot-wear arrived. The pleasure of escaping from 
the encumbrance of shoes would be more than offset 
by the pain from cuts and bruises that would be re- 
ceived when attempting to go barefoot. A natural 
summer compromise, therefore, would be in the form 
of a sandal, which would protect the sole and allow 
freedom to the upper part of the foot. 

In this manner, a race of comparatively tender- 
footed men, wearing shoes or sandals the year round, 

[104] 



CLOTHING THE EXTREMITIES 

would be developed; and while we have no means of 
determining that this was the actual process of the 
evolution, it is a most natural one. Such, undoubt- 
edly, is the way in which the wearing of clothing the 
year round came about, and we may judge by analogy 
that the wearing of clothing for the feet developed in 
a similar manner. 

It is certain that even in the most remote periods 
of antiquity shoes or sandals of some form were in 
use by all civilized, or semi-civilized, peoples. In 
Egypt, where there was no need of protection against 
the cold, the sandal was the prevailing form of foot- 
gear. These sandals were made of straw, reeds, wood, 
or leather, and of numerous patterns, some of them 
plain and designed only for protection, while others 
were of fantastic shapes, made of costly material and 
richly ornamented. Some of these sandals were held 
in place by simple toe-straps, into which the foot was 
thrust, while others were fastened securely about the 
ankle and across the foot. 

A very common and useful type seems to have been 
a toboggan-shaped sandal which curved up in front 
of the toes, with the long point extending backward 
and fastened to the strap about the ankle. Such a 
sandal protected the toes from injury by stubbing in 
the same manner as does the modern shoe. 

Among the early Hebrews both sandals and low 
shoes, or buskins, were worn. A shoe that was a sort 
of compromise between the buskin and a sandal was 
also used, this shoe having a thick protective sole, 
and an upper part covering the top of the foot and 

[105] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

surrounding the ankle, but leaving the toes exposed. 
These, like the buskins, were also made in the form of 
a boot or high shoe which laced in front and surrounded 
the calf of the leg. 

The shoes and the sandals of the Assyrians were 
of much the same type as those worn by the Hebrews. 
On the sculptures they are represented as surrounding 
the foot completely, reaching to the knee and fastening 
in front with lacing. This type of shoe was also com- 
mon among the Persians, and sandals of various kinds 
were also worn; but the lower classes of all these na- 
tions undoubtedly wore no shoes at all, or at most rude 
sandals at certain seasons of the year. 

The Greeks, when they protected their feet at all, 
wore a form of sandal laced about the foot and ankle; 
and the Romans wore sandals and low shoes, some of 
them with very thick soles, but having no heels. 

The barbarian tribes in northern countries wore 
moccasins and leggings very similar to those of the 
American Indians. Certain nations, as the Franks, 
carried the analogy to the Indian still further in their 
weapons and in some of their customs. For the 
Frankish soldier not only carried a tomahawk closely 
resembling that of the redskin, but was skilled in 
throwing it. These barbarians also scalped their 
victims in true Indian fashion. 

Among such Oriental nations as the Chinese there 
has been little change in the kind of foot-wear used 
for thousands of years. The thick soled, heelless slip- 
per, with the sole beveled at the point, was worn in 
antiquity just as it is worn to-day. 

[106] 



CLOTHING THE EXTREMITIES 

Exactly when the wearing of heels began cannot 
be definitely deternined. It is known that the ordinary 
shoe of the Middle Ages was usually heelless, although 
sometimes of fantastic design. During the time that 
the wearing of body-armor was at its height — that is, 
between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries — most 
fantastic and inconvenient forms of foot-gear was worn 
at certain periods, but such extravagance in design 
was usually directed to the toe of the boot rather than 
to the heel. This was true of the armor itself as well 
as the shoes ordinarily worn. 

Not content with weighting themselves down with 
encumbering armor for protection, the knights of that 
day frequently added to the weight of their already 
cumbersome load by lengthening and broadening the 
toes of their metal shoes in a most astonishing manner. 
From the fact that spurs must be worn at the heel, 
this part of the shoe generally escaped the freaks of 
fashion, but there seems to have been no limit to the 
design and modifications of the opposite end of the 
shoe. Knights on horseback frequently wore iron 
shoes two feet in length, while the shoes worn while 
on foot were sometimes of a breadth rivaling that of 
small snow-shoes, and giving something the same gen- 
eral appearance with the long spur protruding from 
the rear. 

For two centuries at least there has been no essen- 
tial change in the general design of boots and shoes. 
The revolutionary changes have been in the methods of 
manufacture, and these largely in the last half century 
when handwork has been so completely supplanted 

[107] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

by machinery. The story of this development is ad- 
mirably told by Mr. George C. Houghton from whose 
account, as published in the U. S. Census Report, we 
quote at length. 

THE RISE OF THE SHOE INDUSTRY 

"The history of this branch of manufacturing, as 
it has progressed from the shoemaker's bench, where 
shoes were turned out one at a time, to the modern 
factory with its output of thousands of pairs daily 
marks, as do few others, the remarkable industrial 
progress of the present age. 

"The introduction of the boot-and-shoe industry 
in America is almost coincident with the first settle- 
ment of New England, for it is a matter of history 
that in the year 1629 a shoemaker named Thomas 
Beard, with a supply of hides, arrived on board the 
Mayflower. This pioneer of the American boot and 
shoe trade was accredited to the governor of the colony, 
by the company in London, at a salary of ^10 per 
annum and a grant of fifty acres of land, upon which 
he should settle. Seven years after the arrival of 
Beard, the city of Lynn saw the inception of the in- 
dustry which has given it a world-wide fame, for there, 
in 1636, Philip Kertland, a native of Buckinghamshire, 
began the manufacture of shoes, and fifteen years 
later the shoemakers of Lynn were supplying the trade 
of Boston. As early as 1648, we find tanning and 
shoemaking mentioned as an industry in the colony 
of Virginia, special mention being made of the fact 

[108] 



CLOTHING THE EXTREMITIES 

that a planter named Matthews employed eight shoe- 
makers upon his own premises. Legal restraint was 
placed upon the business of the cordwainer in Con- 
necticut, in 1656, and in Rhode Island, in 1706, while 
in New York the business of tanning and shoemaking 
is known to have been firmly established previous 
to the capitulation of the province to the English, in 
1664. In 1698 the industry was carried on profitably 
in Philadelphia, and in 1721 the colonial legislature 
of Pennsylvania passed an act regulating the materials 
and the prices of the boot and shoe industry. 

"During the Revolution most of the shoes worn by 
the Continental army, as well as nearly all ready-made 
shoes sold throughout the colonies, were produced in 
Massachusetts, and we find it recorded that ' for quality 
and service they were quite as good as those imported 
from England. ' Immediately after the Revolution, 
in consequence of large importations, the business 
languished somewhat. It soon recovered, however, 
and was pursued with such vigor that in 1795 there 
were in Lynn two hundred master-workmen and six 
hundred journeymen, who produced, in the aggregate, 
three hundred thousand pairs of ladies' shoes. One 
manufacturer in seven months of the year 1795 made 
twenty thousand pairs. In 1778 men's shoes were 
made in Reading, Braintree, and other towns in the 
Old Colony, for the wholesale trade ; they were sold to 
dealers in Boston, Philadelphia, Savannah, and Charles- 
ton, a considerable portion being exported to Cuba 
and other West India islands. 

"About the year 1795 the business was established 

[109] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

in Milford and other Worcester County towns, where 
brogans were made, and sold to the planters in the 
Southern states for negro wear. The custom at this 
time was for the manufacturer to make weekly trips 
to Boston with his horse and wagon, taking his goods 
in baskets and barrels, and selling them to the whole- 
sale trade. 

EARLY METHODS 

"Prior to 1815 most of the shoes were hand sewed, 
a few having been copper nailed; the heavier shoes 
were welted and the lighter ones turned. This method 
of manufacture was changed about the year 181 5, by 
the adoption of the wooden shoe-peg, which was in- 
vented in 181 1 and soon came into general use. Up 
to this time little or no progress had been made in 
the methods of manufacture. The shoemaker sat 
on his bench, and with scarcely any tools other than 
a hammer, knife, and wooden shoulder-stick, cut, 
stitched, hammered, and sewed, until the shoe was 
completed. Previous to the year 1845, which marked 
the first successful application of machinery to Ameri- 
can shoemaking, this industry was in strictest sense 
a hand process, and the young man who chose it for 
his vocation was apprenticed for seven years, and in 
that time was taught every detail of the art. He was 
instructed in the preparation of the in-sole and out- 
sole, depending almost entirely upon his eye for the 
proper proportions; taught to prepare pegs and drive 
them, for the pegged shoe was the most common type 
of footwear in the first half of the last century; and 

[no] 



CLOTHING THE EXTREMITIES 

familiarized himself with the making of turned and 
welt shoes, which have always been considered the 
highest type of shoemaking, and required exceptional 
skill of the artisan in channeling the in-sole and out- 
sole by hand, rounding the sole, sewing the welt, and 
stitching the out-sole. After having served his appren- 
ticeship, it was the custom for the full-fledged shoe- 
maker to start on what was known as l whipping the 
cat/ which meant traveling from town to town, living 
with a family while making a year's supply of shoes 
for each member, and then moving on to fill engage- 
ments previously made. 

"The change from which has been evolved our 
present factory system, began in the latter part of 1 700, 
when a system of sizes had been drafted, and shoe- 
makers more enterprising than their fellows gathered 
about them groups of workmen, and took upon them- 
selves the dignity of manufacturers. The entire shoe 
was then made under one roof, and generally from 
leather that was tanned on the premises ; one workman 
cut the leather; others sewed the uppers, and still 
others fastened uppers to soles, each workman han- 
dling only one part of the process of manufacture. 
This division of labor was successful from the very 
start, and soon the method was adopted of sending 
out the uppers to be sewed by women and children at 
their homes. Small shops were numerous through- 
out certain parts of Massachusetts where the shoemaker, 
with members of his family or sometimes a neighbor, 
received the uppers and understock from the factories 
nearby, bottomed the boots and shoes, and returned 

[HI] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

them to the factories, where they were finished and sent 
to the market packed in wooden boxes. Thus the 
industry developed and prospered and was carried on 
without any further improvement in methods, until 
the introduction of machinery a little more than a 
half century ago. 

THE APPLICATION OF MACHINERY 

"The first machine which proved itself of any prac- 
tical value was the leather-rolling machine, which 
came into use about 1845 and with which it was said 
'a man could do in a minute what would require half 
an hour's hard work with a lapstone and hammer. ' 
This was closely followed by the wax-thread sewing- 
machine, which greatly reduced the time required for 
sewing together the different parts that formed the 
upper, and the buffing-machine, for removing the 
grain from sole leather. Then came a machine which 
made pegs very cheaply and with great rapidity, and 
this in turn was followed by a hand-power machine for 
driving pegs. In 1855 there was introduced the split- 
ting-machine, for reducing sole leather to a uniform 
thickness. Peg-making and power-making machines 
were soon perfected and there had appeared a dieing- 
out machine, which was used cutting soles, taps, and 
heels by the use of different sized dies. The year 
i860 saw the introduction of the McKay sewing-ma- 
chine, which has perhaps done more to' revolutionize 
the manufacture of shoes than any other single ma- 
chine. The shoe to be sewed was placed over a horn 

[112] 



CLOTHING THE EXTREMITIES 

and the sewing was done from the channel in the 
out-sole through the sole and in-sole. The machine 
made a loop-stitch and left a ridge of thread on the 
inside of the shoe, but it filled the great demand that 
existed for sewed shoes, and many hundreds of millions 
of pairs have been made by its use. 

"At the time of the introduction of the McKay 
machine inventors were busy in other directions, and 
as a result came the introduction of the cable-nailing 
machine, which was provided with a cable of nails, 
the head of one being joined to the point of another; 
these the machine cut into separate nails and drove 
automatically. At about this time was introduced 
the screw-machine which formed a screw from brass 
wire, forcing it into the leather and cutting it off auto- 
matically. This was the prototype of the 'rapid 
standard screw-machine,' which is a comparatively 
recent invention and is very widely used as a sole- 
fastener at the present time on the heavier class of 
boots and shoes. Very soon thereafter the attention 
of the trade was attracted to the invention of a New 
York mechanic for the sewing of soles. This device 
was particularly intended for the making of turn- 
shoes and afterward became famous as the Goodyear 
'turn-shoe machine.' It was many years before this 
machine became a commercial success, and mention 
of its progress is made later. 

"Closely following the Goodyear invention came the 

introduction of the first machine used in connection 

with heeling — a machine which compressed the heel 

and pricked holes for the nails — and this was soon 

vol. ex. — 8 [ 113] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

followed by a machine which automatically drove the 
nails, the heels having previously been put in place 
and held by guides on the machine. Other improve- 
ments in heeling -machines followed with considerable 
rapidity, and a machine came into use shortly after- 
ward which not only nailed the heel but was also pro- 
vided with a hand-trimmer, which the operator swung 
round the heel immediately after nailing. From these 
have been evolved the heeling-machines in use at the 
present time. 

"Notable improvements had during this time been 
made in the Goodyear system, and a machine was 
made for the sewing of welts which was the foundation 
of the Goodyear machine now so universally used. 
This machine sewed from the channel of the in-sole 
through upper and welt, uniting all three, and was a 
machine of the chain-stitch type which left the loop 
on the outside of the welt. This machine was closely 
followed by the introduction of one which stitched the 
out-sole, uniting it to the welt by a stitch made from 
the channel in the out-sole, through out-sole and welt. 
This machine afterward became famous as the Good- 
year 'rapid out-sole lock-stitch machine. ' The great 
demand that existed for shoes of this type made it 
necessary that accessory machines should be invented, 
and those which prepared the in-sole, skived the welt, 
trimmed the in-sole, rounded and channeled the out- 
sole, as well as a machine which automatically rolled 
or leveled the shoe, and the stitch-separating machine 
were soon produced. These formed the Goodyear 
welt system which has been the subject of constant 

[»4] 



CLOTHING THE EXTREMITIES 

improvement up to the present time, and is now in 
use wherever shoes of a high class are made. 

"At the time the first standard -screw machine was 
attracting attention, the heel-trimming and fore-part 
trimming machines were brought about. This part 
of the work had previously been done by the hand- 
workman, using a shave or knife for trimming, and as 
he was entirely dependent upon the eye for the proper 
proportions of the finished sole, the work was not often 
of a very uniform nature. The heel and forepart- 
trimming machines greatly reduced this part of the 
labor, and their adoption was very rapid. 

"In the early '7o's came a change in a department 
of shoemaking which, prior to that time, had been 
regarded as a confirmed hand-process. This was the 
important part of the work known as lasting; and a 
machine was introduced at that time fordoing this work. 
This machine, as well as those which followed after- 
ward for a period of twenty years, was known as the 
bed type of machine, in which the shoe-upper was drawn 
over the last by either friction or pincers, and then 
tacked by the use of a hand- tool. At a compara- 
tively recent period another machine which revolu- 
tionized all previous ideas in lasting was introduced. 
This machine is generally in use at the present time 
and is known as the 'consolidated hand-method last- 
ing-machine. ' It was fitted with pincers which auto- 
matically drew the leather round the last, at the same 
time driving a tack which held it in place. This ma- 
chine has been so developed that it is now used for 
the lasting of shoes of every type, from the lowest and 

["Si 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

cheapest to the highest grade, and it is a machine that 
shows wonderful mechanical ingenuity. 

"The perfecting of the lasting-machine has been 
followed recently by the introduction of a machine 
which performs in a most satisfactory way the difficult 
process known as ' pulling over,' which consists of 
accurately centering the shoe-upper on the last and 
securing it temporarily in position for the work of 
lasting. The new machine, which is known as the 
1 hand-method pulling-over machine,' is provided with 
pincers, which close automatically, gripping the shoe- 
upper at sides and toe. It is fitted with adjustments 
by which the operator is enabled to quickly center 
the shoe-upper on the last, and, on the pressing of a 
foot-lever, the machine automatically draws the upper 
closely to the last and secures it in position by tacks, 
which are also driven by the machine. The introduc- 
tion of this machine marked a radical change in the 
one important shoemaking process that had up to this 
time successfully withstood all attempts at mechanical 
improvement. At about the time that lasting was 
first introduced there came the finishing-machines, 
which were used for finishing heel and fore-part. 
These machines were fitted with a tool, which was 
heated by gas and which practically duplicated the 
labor of the hand-workman in rubbing the edges with 
a hot tool for the purpose of finishing them. From 
these early machines have been evolved the edge- 
cutting machines which are in use at the present time. 

"The latest machine to attract the attention of the 
trade is one which, in the opinion of those well qualified 

[116] 



CLOTHING THE EXTREMITIES 

to judge, is destined to revolutionize the making of 
that class of shoes which has heretofore been made 
on the McKay sewing-machine. It is known as the 
' universal double-clinch machine,' and forms a fas- 
tening of wire, which is taken from a coil corrugated 
in the machine, and driven, one end being clinched 
back into the leather of the out- sole. It is further 
provided with an attachment which makes the channel 
in which the fastening is driven, and afterward closes 
it automatically. It makes a very comfortable, flexi- 
ble, and durable shoe, and is being rapidly adopted 
by manufacturers. 

"At the present time the genius of the American 
inventor has provided for every detail of shoemaking, 
even the smallest processes being performed by me- 
chanical devices of some kind. This has naturally 
made the shoemaker of to-day a specialist, who very 
seldom knows anything of shoemaking apart from the 
particular process in the performance of which he is 
an adept, and from which he earns a livelihood. The 
American shoe of to-day is the standard production 
of the world. It is in demand wherever shoes are 
worn, and although the tools which have made its 
production possible have been perfected in the face 
of most discouraging conditions and opposition, they 
are to-day classed among the most ingenious produc- 
tions of a wonderfully productive epoch. 

LASTS AND PATTERNS 

"An important feature of the boot-and-shoe indus- 
try is the use of lasts and the system of last-measure- 

[117] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

ments adopted by manufacturers. In the early '50*3 
the methods in last- and pattern-making were very 
crude, although some of the boots and shoes made in 
those days were very fine in workmanship, and the 
amount paid to a workman for simply putting on the 
buttons, which was done by hand, would, at the present 
time, purchase a good pair of shoes. Lasts were then 
made only in whole sizes, such a thing as half sizes 
being unheard of, and were of curious shapes; first, 
they would have very broad toes, then would go to 
the other extreme and run out so thin at the end that 
it was necessary to iron-plate them. There were only 
two or three styles and widths, and one pattern would 
fit them all. Many of the women's lasts were made 
straight. Very little attention was given to the saving 
of stock in those days, and in the making of patterns 
one had only to get them large enough. At the present 
day the saving of stock in the making of patterns is 
of the greatest importance. The measurements must 
be absolutely retained. The character and style must 
be kept up; and the lines, proportions, and graceful 
curves must receive the most careful attention in all 
their details, as these are necessary to make up the 
symmetrical whole. The early method of producing 
patterns was largely by guess, and some, it is said, 
still cling to the old way. At one time what was called 
the English system was considerably used, the method 
being to take a piece of upper leather, wet and crimp 
it over the last, and let it dry. This gave the form of 
the last, and then the pattern was cut from stiff paper, 
allowing for laps, seams, and folds. This method 

[118] 



CLOTHING THE EXTREMITIES 

gave good results, providing that the person using it 
had good taste in putting style into the pattern. Later 
came the Radii system, which some are using at the 
present day. Still later came the Soule method, and 
a book was published describing that system. This 
method, which is said to produce very good results, 
is still being used by many pattern-manufacturers, and 
also by local shoe-pattern makers in many of the shoe 
factories of the country. Some of the most enterprising 
pattern-makers of to-day, however, are using more 
modern methods. It is conceded that America leads 
the world in the manufacture of shoes, principally on 
account of superior style and workmanship; and the 
American last- and pattern-makers are entitled to a 
large degree of credit in establishing the character and 
style of the American shoe. 

METHODS OF MANUFACTURE 

"The following gives a fair idea of how a pair of 
shoes is turned out under modern methods in the factory 
to-day: First, the cutters are given tickets describing 
the style of shoe required, the thickness of sole, and 
whatever other details are necessary. From this ticket 
the vamp-cutter blocks out the vamps and gives them 
with the ticket to the upper-cutter, who shapes the 
vamps to the pattern and cuts the tops or quarters 
which accompany them. The trimming-cutter then 
gets out the side-linings, stays, facings, or whatever 
trimmings are needed. The whole is then made into a 
bundle and sent to the fitting department. Here they 

[»9] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

are arranged in classes by themselves. Pieces which 
are too heavy are run through a splitting machine, 
and the edges are beveled by means of the skiving- 
machine. Next they are pasted together, care being 
taken to join them at the marks made for that purpose. 
After being dried they go into the hands of the machine 
operators. The different parts go to different machines, 
each of which is adjusted for its particular work. The 
completed upper next goes to the sole-leather room, 
in which department machinery also performs the 
major part of the work. By the use of the cutting-ma- 
chine the sides of leather are reduced into strips cor- 
responding to the length of the sole required. These 
strips are passed through a powerful rolling-machine, 
which hardens the leather and moves from its surface 
all irregularities. They are then shaved down to a 
uniform thickness, also by machinery, and placed 
under disks which cut them out in proper form. The 
smaller pieces are died out in the form of lifts, or heel- 
pieces, which are joined together to the proper thick- 
ness and cemented, after which they are put in presses 
which give them the greatest amount of solidity. The 
top lift is not added to the heel until after it has been 
nailed to the shoe. The remaining sole-leather is 
used for shank pieces, rands, and bottom leveling. 

"For the in-sole, a lighter grade of leather is used, 
which, being cut into strips and rolled, is cut by dies 
to the correct shape, shaved uniformly, and channeled 
around the under edge for receiving the upper. The 
counters are died out and skived by machine, and the 
welts cut in strips. The uppers and soles are then 

[120] 



CLOTHING THE EXTREMITIES 

sent to the bottoming department, where the first 
operation is that of lasting, the uppers being tacked 
to the in-sole. From the laster they go to the machine 
operator, where the upper, sole, and welt are firmly 
sewed together by the machine. The bottom is filled 
and leveled off and the steel shank inserted. Next 
the bottom is coated with cement, and the out-sole 
pressed on it by a machine. Thence it is sent through 
the rounding-machine, which trims it and channels 
the sole for stitching. From there it goes again to the 
sewing-machine, which stitches through the welt out- 
side of the upper. The next step is that of leveling, 
then heeling, both of which processes are accomplished 
by machinery. The heels are nailed on in the rough 
and afterward trimmed into shape by a machine oper- 
ating revolving knives; a breasting-machine shaping 
the front of the heel. Still another machine drives in 
the brass nails and cuts them off flush with the top 
pieces. The edging-machine is next used, which trims 
the edges of both sole and heel. The bottom is then 
sandpapered, blacked, and burnished by machinery, 
after which the shoe is cleaned, treed, and packed. 
The total floor space occupied by the shoe factories 
of the United States is practically 2,000,000 square 
feet, or about 550 acres." 

GLOVES AND GAUNTLETS 

Recent geological discoveries seem to show that 
rude hand protections in the form of mittens or gloves 
were worn by the prehistoric cave dwellers. How 

[121] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

much before their time this custom had come into use 
by our remote ancestors there is no means of deter- 
mining, but it certainly dates back into very remote 
antiquity. And yet shoes or foot-coverings were 
probably worn many centuries before coverings for 
the hands. 

If gloves were first used as protection against cold, 
they would certainly not have been conceived for some 
time after similar coverings for the feet had become 
necessary. Primitive man would have found much 
less difficulty in protecting his hands against the in- 
clemency of the weather than his feet, as it was a 
comparatively simple matter to wrap his skin cloak 
about them when not in use, leaving them free for 
action when necessary. It is probable, therefore, that 
even the dwellers in cold climates were wearing shoes 
and leggings long before hand protections of any kind 
were worn. 

Here again, the customs of the American Indians, 
as in many other instances, throw light upon the sub- 
ject. All the northern Indians were familiar with 
well-made moccasins and leggings, although mittens or 
gloves of any kind were seldom, if ever, worn by them. 

On the other hand it may be possible that the wear- 
ing of hand protection originated in the warmer cli- 
mates, not as protection against cold, but as means 
of defense in fighting. If this were the case it is pos- 
sible that the wearing of mittens originated before the 
time of the wearing of shoes. Even at the present 
time there are certain tribesmen in Africa who use, 
in place of shields, a form of hand protection made of 

[122] 



CLOTHING THE EXTREMITIES 

skins when hunting dangerous animals. The mode 
of using these protectors is by wrapping the skins of 
animals around the left hand and arm, leaving the 
right hand free for using the spear. When attacked 
by an animal the hunter holds his skin-protected hand 
before him, allowing the attacking animal to seize it, 
in so doing exposing itself to the spear-thrust. In 
this case, of course, several layers of skin are used, 
wound so as to form a thickness that will resist the 
teeth of the animal. But a very natural modification 
of this arrangement would be a form of mitten made 
of thick hides, thus partly protecting the left hand 
while leaving the other free for action. A mitten 
or glove may have been worn at times on the right 
hand also. 

Another possible origin in the use of gloves, other 
than for protection against cold, may have been for 
protection of the left hand in archery. Among all 
nations, even of remote antiquity, some form of protec- 
tion to the wrist and hand was known, and while this 
was usually in the form of a wrist-band, rather than a 
glove or mitten, the exposed position of the fingers 
and knuckles as thrust forward in archery may have 
suggested the use of the glove as a means of pro- 
tection. 

But all these are mere surmises as to how the wear- 
ing of gloves may have originated in warmer climates. 
It is certain that in the northern regions gloves and 
mittens were worn in very remote antiquity. By the 
dawn of civilization well-made gloves fitted to the hand 
and fingers in a manner not unlike the modern glove 

[123] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

were in use, and from the time required for the evo- 
lution of gloves to this stage of perfection, we may gain 
some conception of the great antiquity of the custom 
of glove-wearing. 

Gloves were conspicuous during the Middle Ages as 
part of the regalia of kings, princes, and clergy. 
Among the many beneficial laws made by Charlemagne 
was one which allowed the clergy unlimited hunting- 
rights in order that they might kill a sufficient number 
of deer to provide themselves with skins for their 
gloves and book-covers. At that time a hidden sig- 
nificance had been given to the custom of glove-wearing, 
gauntlets playing an important part in some ecclesi- 
astical rites and ceremonies, and certain ceremonies 
of kings and princes. This led to great extravagance 
in designs and peculiarities in the patterns of gloves, 
particularly among the nobility and the upper church- 
men. These extravagances became so conspicuous in 
the fourteenth century when even the lower clergy had 
been granted the privilege of wearing gloves, that sump- 
tuary restrictions against any but the plainer types were 
imposed by the upper churchmen. 

The custom of hawking, which became popular as 
early as the fourth century, is also responsible for the 
custom of wearing gauntlet gloves in certain countries. 
As the hawks were perched on the hand of the hunter, 
some protection to the hand and wrist was necessary 
against the sharp talons of the birds. Gauntlet gloves, 
therefore, came into use, the custom of wearing them 
while hunting extending itself eventually to other oc- 
casions. 

[124] 



CLOTHING THE EXTREMITIES 

Although it is undoubtedly true that gloves were 
worn by women for protection quite as early as by men, 
they did not form part of the dress of ladies until com- 
paratively recent times. In England they were worn 
in the fourteenth century, and by the sixteenth century 
they were made with elaborate embroidery and set 
with costly gems. After this period, however, plainer 
gloves were introduced, made in practically the same 
manner as the ordinary glove of to-day; and while 
the fashions have changed slightly from time to time 
during the three intervening centuries, the gloves of 
to-day are practically identical with the gloves worn 
in the time of Queen Elizabeth. 

THE MANUFACTURE OF GLOVES 

As early as the middle of the twelfth century glove- 
making had become of such importance that societies of 
handicraftsmen known as " glovers" had been formed 
in several European countries, France and Scotland 
being the first to organize such societies. These so- 
cieties had a decidedly beneficial effect upon both the 
trade in gloves and in the products themselves, as they 
controlled the material for making the gloves and pre- 
vented dishonest workmanship. By the fifteenth cen- 
tury these glovers' societies had secured many favora- 
ble legislative acts, and in the seventeenth century a 
society of glovers was organized in London which soon 
made that city the great center of glove manufacture, 
a position that it has held ever since. 

The industry flourished in Ireland also, and the 
"Limerick glove" became famous for its exquisite 

["5] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

texture and delicate workmanship. These gloves 
were made from the skins of very young calves, kids, 
and lambs, tanned and prepared in a special manner. 
Some of them were so delicate that "one might be 
placed in a walnut shell." For many years these 
gloves were worn extensively, but were eventually 
supplanted in popular favor by the French kid glove. 

The manufacture of gloves and mittens in America 
was not undertaken extensively until just before the 
outbreak of the Revolutionary War. In 1760, a colony 
of immigrants from Scotland settled in what is now 
Fulton County, New York, establishing a village which 
they called Perth. Many of these newcomers had 
been glove-makers at home, and brought with them 
their patterns, needles, and thread. While they came 
as tillers of the soil, these former glovers devoted their 
spare hours, from work in the fields, to making coarse 
mittens and gloves which they sold to their neighbors 
on the adjoining farms. Skins were to be had in abun- 
dance, particularly buckskins, which were ideal for 
making into tough, serviceable mittens, adapted to 
the needs of farmers and hunters. 

It was not until 1809, however, that gloves were 
manufactured for outside markets, and glove-making 
began taking the form of an independent industry. 
About this time a storekeeper named Talmadge Ed- 
wards took with him a bag of gloves on horseback to 
Albany to be exchanged for merchandise. Finding a 
ready sale for these, he employed a number of girls 
from the neighboring farms to cut gloves in his little 
factory, sending these out among the farmers' wives 

[126] 



CLOTHING THE EXTREMITIES 

to be sewed. The year following gloves were sold in 
dozen lots by a former associate of Edwards, this being 
the first recorded instance of "wholesale" glove- 
traffic in America. 

Other glove factories were soon established, and 
followed the lead of these pioneers in sending out 
wagon-load lots of their products. In 1825, a wagon- 
load was sent as far as Boston from Gloversville in 
Fulton County, New York, and sold at a good profit. 
Thus the region about Fulton County became the 
center of the American glove industry, and still 
remains so. 

In the early method of manufacture, a skin was first 
marked out by means of pasteboard models, or patterns 
cut from thin pieces of wood. As graphite pencils were 
then unknown, the glove-makers used "plummets" of 
lead, made by molding the soft metal in narrow grooves. 
The gloves were then cut out with shears and wrapped 
up in bundles containing needles and thread, ready for 
sending out to the sewers. The cutting was usually 
done by men and the sewing by the women, although 
this was not always the case. 

For many years no sewing was done in the factories, 
but only by piece-work by persons working at home. 
This sewing was done by a square-pointed needle 
threaded with a waxed linen thread. Between the 
edges to be joined a welt of buckskin was placed in 
the heavier gloves, although no welt was used in the 
lighter gloves and mittens. The finer gloves were 
backstitched, and had a "vine" worked on the backs, 
and were well fitting and serviceable. When the glove 

[127] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

was finished it was placed between pasteboards and 
pressed, the pressing usually being done by the weight 
of the seamstress who sat upon it. 

The method of marking out the gloves from patterns, 
and cutting with shears, was slow and expensive, and 
careless cutters frequently ruined the skins. But this 
method was soon superseded by the use of dies for 
cutting, which greatly shortened and simplified the 
process. 

These dies were made of metal, with cutting edges 
like a cooky-cutter, these edges corresponding to the 
marks made by the " plummets" when the patterns 
were used. With such dies no marking was neces- 
sary, and a single blow of a wooden maul upon the die 
performed the work formerly done with the shears. 
In this manner the time of cutting out a glove was re- 
duced from several minutes to seconds, accuracy and 
uniformity were insured, and spoiling the gloves by 
a miscut was impossible. These dies were first made 
in pairs for cutting out left- and right-hand gloves, 
but one was soon found to answer every purpose, cut- 
ting either right or left by simply reversing the leather. 

This innovation greatly shortened the process of 
manufacture, but as every stitch had to be taken by 
hand, it was still slow, and the cost of production cor- 
respondingly high. In 1 85 2 , however, sewing-machines 
were introduced for stitching some parts of the glove 
and these were gradually improved until in 1856 a 
machine was perfected that sewed every part of the 
glove as well as it could be done by hand except the 
vine on the back. 

[1283 



CLOTHING THE EXTREMITIES 

The Civil War gave a great impetus to glove manu- 
facture in the United States, as such a great number 
of gauntlet gloves were required for military service. 
The impetus given the industry at that time, together 
with the introduction of so many different kinds of 
machinery of American invention, has helped it to 
become one of the great industries of the country. 
It was not until about 1875, however, that steam- 
power was introduced for running sewing-machines, 
and this is now being largely replaced by electricity. 

When the glove industry was in its infancy in Amer- 
ica, the most common material for glove-making was 
buckskin. Deer-skins were cheap and abundant at 
that time and admirably adapted to making coarse 
gloves and mittens, which were practically the only 
kind manufactured. As the industry increased, and 
deer-skins became correspondingly expensive and 
difficult to obtain, other skins were pressed into serv- 
ice, notably sheepskins. Gloves made of this material 
as prepared at that time, however, were of very in- 
ferior quality and never became popular either for 
coarse gloves for rough usage, or for the lighter and 
finer kinds. But a little later better methods of tan- 
ning were discovered by means of which very serviceable 
gloves could be made from sheepskins, and at present 
most of the gloves and mittens manufactured are made 
of this material. 

Other leathers have also come into use extensively 

owing to improved methods of tanning. The finer 

gloves for street wear are now made from the skins of 

such animals as colts, calves, lambs, kids, goats, South 

vol. lx.— 9 [129] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

American kids, chamois, and reindeer. Mexico, Cen- 
tral and South America furnish most of the deer-skins, 
although a large supply still comes from the woods of 
North America. Most of these skins are brought to 
the United States as raw hides, and are tanned in 
American tanneries. 

Just after the close of the Civil War gloves made 
of " vat-liquor-dressed " antelope-skins became popu- 
lar. But, as we have seen, about this time the antelope 
began to disappear, and it was no longer possible to 
supply the demand for this kind of glove. Fortunately 
at this time two bales of skins of an unknown variety 
arrived in America, coming from Arabia with a consign- 
ment of Mocha coffee. When tanned these proved to be 
a good substitute for antelope-skin gloves, and an effort 
was made to discover their source. They proved to 
be from a breed of sheep raised on the Arabian side of 
the Red Sea, and from their association with the con- 
signment of coffee with which they first arrived, they 
came to be known as "Mocha" skins. Large impor- 
tations followed, and at present this kind of skin is 
used extensively in the manufacture of fine gloves. 

As referred to a moment ago, there have been revo- 
lutionary changes in methods of tanning hides during 
the last twenty-five years. At first, the Indian method 
of tanning was employed almost exclusively. In this 
the brain of the deer was used, producing a soft, tough, 
pliable leather; but as this material was hard to obtain 
in sufficient quantities, the brains of sheep and hogs 
were substituted. Curiously enough, neither of these 
gave satisfactory results, although the reason for this 

[130] 



CLOTHING THE EXTREMITIES 

is hard to understand, since the sheep is so closely 
related to the deer. 

Fortunately at this stage of the process, chemistry 
came to the aid of the tanner, and various chemical 
substitutes were found for deer-brains. Without en- 
tering into details, it suffices to say that an elab- 
orate and extended process of soaking, washing, and 
coloring is necessary before they are ready for delivery 
to the glove-maker. 

The first process of the glove-maker is that of " hand- 
staking " the skin. This consists in placing the skin 
in a device consisting of two upright and two hori- 
zontal bars, one of the latter being movable to admit 
the skin, and held in place by a wedge. The skin is 
then stretched by pressing upon it with a blunt, spade- 
shaped iron, having a handle made to fit under the arm. 

When sufficiently stretched the skin is split by va- 
rious methods, or shaved down to the required thick- 
ness. A peculiar method of shaving down the skin is 
by what is called " mooning." In this process a pe- 
culiar knife is used, being " shaped like a plate and 
having the center cut out and a handle placed across 
the opening." This is drawn over the skin hung on 
an elastic pole until the desired thinness is obtained. 
The skin is then ready for either the " block-cutters " 
or the " table-cutters." 

In block-cutting the skin is laid on a block of hard 
wood, a die of the required shape placed carefully 
upon it, and given a blow with a wooden mallet. 
This kind of cutting is done mostly in the coarser grades 
of gloves. 

[131] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

Table-cutting is practically the same process, ex- 
cept that tables take the place of blocks, and the skin 
is dampened and stretched to exactly the right degree, 
this process requiring much skill and practice. To 
be a good table-cutter — that is, to be able to handle 
the leather so as to get the greatest number of pairs 
of gloves out of each skin, avoiding flaws, and stretch- 
ing it to the proper degree — requires long practice, and 
is at best only attained by one workman in every three or 
four. It is the kind of work better adapted to foreign 
workmen, Americans not taking kindly to it as a rule. 

From the cutters the glove goes to the "silkers" 
who embroider the back, and is then passed on to the 
" makers." Each maker has his particular work to 
do, certain ones sewing in the fingers and thumbs, 
others hemming the glove at the edge around the wrist, 
while the "pointers" work ornamental lines on the 
back. All these operations, of course, are done largely 
by machinery. The gloves are then drawn over metal 
"hands" heated by steam, shaped, and given a finished 
appearance. 

One of the most remarkable machines now used in 
glove-making is the multiple-needle machine for stitch- 
ing the backs of gloves. This machine sews from two 
to six rows at the same time. An automatic trimmer 
is attached to the head- or needle-bar of the machine 
which trims the gloves much better than can be done 
with shears. Other recent machines make ornamental 
zigzags, and overstitches, the latter closing the seam 
from the outside. 

[132] 



VI 

THE EVOLUTION OF THE DWELLING HOUSE 

TACITUS tells us that in his day the Germans 
crouched in dens dug out of the earth, and if 
this be the case, these people must have been 
of the type that resolutely sets itself against all progress, 
for the very first human beings of whom we find any 
trace lived in precisely the same manner. The ear- 
liest habitations of men were, in all probability, holes 
dug in the earth and covered with the branches of 
trees. Near Joigny in France, some of these dwellings 
may still be seen. They are circular holes about fifty 
feet in diameter and between sixteen and twenty feet 
deep. At the bottom, in the center, was fixed the trunk 
of a good-sized tree, the stem rising above the ground, 
where branches plastered with clay formed the roof. 

These holes have been found in many parts of the 
globe, and were probably more important to their 
inhabitants as a hiding-place than as a shelter from the 
cold, for everything points to the fact that during their 
period of occupation the regions so inhabited enjoyed a 
mild or warm climate. The men who lived in the La 
Plata region of South America did indeed find a more 
protective substitute for the arboreal roof in the shell of 
the giant armadillo, or glyptodon, which was of a size 
to house them in quite comfortably; but nowhere else 

[i33] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

is there any reason to believe that the first dwelling 
of the human race was otherwise than the construction 
described above. 

Climates, however, change, and man in the course 
of time not only found himself compelled to cope with 
colder weather, but he himself pushed further and 
further into more rigorous climes. Then it was, the 
hollow den failing his needs, that he learned to use the 
caves which are found in limestone rocks, and which 
he took as they were or enlarged to meet his require- 
ments. The date of this important transition it is 
quite impossible to determine, but the archaeologist 
places the cave men in the second period of the devel- 
opment of the dwelling, since in none of the caves 
have been found implements so primitive in type as 
those of the excavated dens. And moreover, as reck- 
oned by time, the day of the first cave dwelling must 
vary greatly in different localities. When we speak 
of the "Early Stone Age" and "Late Stone Age" we 
should think of phases of human development rather 
than of fixed periods of time. To the present environ- 
ment of some races of men living on the earth the term 
Neolithic would not be inappropriate. 

In the cave, man found himself the rival of the bear 
and other beasts of prey in the somewhat precarious 
refuge, but nevertheless it is evident from the first 
that what best suited the needs of the one was that 
sought for by the others. 

"Our ancestors must constantly have disputed the 
possession of their caves of refuge with animals," 
says a noted archaeologist, "but there is often a cer- 

[134] 



THE DWELLING HOUSE 

tain distinction between those chiefly occupied by men 
and the mere dens of wild beasts. The latter are 
generally more difficult of access, and are only to be 
entered by long, low, narrow, dark passages. Those 
permanently inhabited by man are wide, not very deep, 
and they are well lighted. That at Montgaudier, for 
instance, has an arched entrance some forty-five feet 
wide by eighteen high. The cave-men had early 
learned to appreciate the advantages of air and light. 

"The caves are often of considerable height; that 
at Massat is some 560 feet high, that of Lherm is 655, 
that of Bouicheta nearly 755, that of Loubens 820, 
and that of Santhenay is as much as 1,344 feet high. 

"We soon begin to find evidence of the progress 
made by man, and though in Neolithic times he still 
continued to occupy caves, he learned to adapt them 
better to his needs." 

In the Petit Morin Valley, for instance, "the shelters 
used to live in are divided into two unequal parts by 
a wall cut in the living rock. To get into the second 
partition one has to go down steps cut in the limestone, 
and these steps are worn with long usage. The en- 
trance was cut out of a massive piece of rock, left thick 
on purpose, and on either side of the opening the edges 
will show the rabbet which was to receive the door. 
Two small holes on the right and left were purposely 
used to fix a bar across the front to strengthen the 
entrance. A good many of these caves are provided 
with an opening for ventilation, and some skilful con- 
trivances were resorted to for keeping out the water. 
Inside we find different floors, shelves, and crockets 

[135] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

cut in the chalk. Everything proves an undeniable 
improvement in the conditions of life." 

The Marquis de Nadaillac notes that when man 
reached that stage of his development, which, according 
to the character of his implements, we call the Neo- 
lithic or Late Stone Age, he " still continued to occupy 
caves," but there is good evidence that at this time these 
were not his sole form of habitation. All over Europe 
and America, too, there have been discovered curious 
mounds not of natural origin which, when investigated, 
have proved to be refuse heaps (the oldest belong to 
the Neolithic Age) piled up by primitive man. Kitchen- 
middings they have been called, and they have yielded 
an immense amount of shells, bones, charred wood, 
stone implements, hearth-stones, — in fact, refuse of all 
kinds, to the extreme joy of the archaeologist, and the 
enlightenment of mankind as to the habits and customs 
of our early ancestors. Their very nature and exist- 
ence indicates clearly that they belonged to settlements, 
the habitations of which have quite vanished, but 
which were huts made of branches and dried clay, or 
tents of the skins of animals slain in the chase. Man 
had reached the stage where he was able to live in a 
more or less organized community, and the kitchen- 
midding shows that he had reached the dignity of a 
fixed abode. 

Late in that period when human beings hewed their 
necessary implements from stone, and more frequently 
in that which marks the transition to the use of metals, 
we find a people characterized by their habitations. 
The "Swiss Lake Dwellers" they are called, but ac- 

[136] 



THE DWELLING HOUSE 

tually they lived in many other parts of the world as 
well. Austria, Hungary, Italy, Germany, and the 
British Isles contain many traces of them. Just why 
they should have gone to the trouble of building their 
houses beyond the shores of the lakes has never been 
determined, but indications point to a race or period 
of war-like activity, which made an isolated refuge one 
of the prime factors of existence. 

The Swiss bodies of water are dotted with these 
stations. The lake of Neufchatel has forty-nine of 
them; Constance, thirty, and Geneva twenty-four. 
Three different periods of Swiss lake dwellings have 
been noted, characterized by their distance from the 
shore. It would seem that whatever the motive that 
impelled the building of these aquatic settlements, 
it acted more powerfully as time went on, driving the 
inhabitants farther and farther from the shore, until 
new conditions changed their mode of life or they suc- 
cumbed to the fate they tried so hard to escape. The 
oldest of the settlements are located from a hundred and 
thirty to three hundred feet from the shore, the latest 
from seven hundred to a thousand feet. They were 
built, naturally, on piles, which were about eleven or 
twelve inches in diameter, pointed at the ends and 
hardened by fire. When these piles had been driven 
into the bottom of the lake a platform made of beams 
and bound together by interlaced branches was laid 
on them to bear the weight of the huts. The depth 
of water under the huts is on the average about fifteen 
feet and varies but little from that figure. The dwell- 
ings themselves were made of interlaced branches, 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

or of clay and straw; they were rectangular in shape, 
divided into two compartments connected by a foot- 
bridge of three beams laid side by side. The floors 
were of rounded wood, and the walls of piles split in 
half. Sometimes several floors rose one above another 
divided by thick layers of clay. 

Such, in brief, are the main features of one of the 
earliest homes of mankind. We, of the favored races, 
enjoying our highly developed dwellings, are apt to 
refer these ways of living to a very remote past. But, 
as has been said, to a considerable portion of the human 
race the terms Stone and Iron Age are still applicable. 
The hut of the Eskimo, the wigwam of the American 
Indian; the habitation of the African savage and the 
nomadic tribe of Central Asia, afford much infor- 
mation as to the dwellings of our primitive ancestors. 
Even the Swiss lake dweller, in whose difficult struggle 
for existence we take perhaps more interest than in 
that of any other primitive man, could he come back 
to-day, would feel at home in some parts of Oceanica 
and Africa. 

Until within the last half century the style of archi- 
tecture as well as the material used in building, even 
in city dwellings, was largely determined by the natural 
products at hand, and aside from the comparatively 
few dwellings of the wealthy, this is still a determining 
factor to a large extent. The Eskimo, utilizing the 
material at hand, builds a house of snow; the Egyp- 
tian uses reeds and rushes; the Greeks and Romans, 
living in a sparsely wooded country, built stone houses; 
the Assyrians, having but little stone at hand, learned 

[138] 



THE DWELLING HOUSE 

to make brick; while the Teutonic dwellers in the 
north, surrounded by forests, built their houses of 
wood. Even the very wealthy in these lands in times 
past had little choice in their building-materials, and 
while no such restriction is placed upon the very wealthy 
to-day, the generality of people the world over still 
build their houses of the material nearest to hand. 

It is always true that the farther we go back in the 
history of an art the more simple and direct are the 
forces that we find attending its development. How 
close the savage lived to the primitive powers of nature 
is scarcely realized by members of civilized society. 
His life is directly molded by geography, geology, and 
climate. His art is created from suggestions given by 
his own environment, interpreted and applied according 
to the powers of his intelligence. Thus we find the 
aborigines of wild forest-belts building their huts of 
log platforms with a wall of interlaced branches on the 
windward side alone; we find Arctic hunting tribes — 
such as the Eskimos of Kamchatka — forced by the 
cold to hang the skins of animals on the walls of their 
conical dwellings. 

In the architecture of the cliff-dwellers we have a 
fine example of the utilization of natural opportuni- 
ties. The southwestern portion of the United States 
is known to the geologist as the " plateau country." 
Its dominant formation is the mesa y or flat mountain- 
top, furrowed by chasms varying greatly in breadth. 
The walls of these gorges are perpendicular, rising 
from ten to a hundred feet in height. At their feet 
lie rich alluvial lands deposited by receding floods. 

[i39] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

What could have been more natural, more economical — 
more inevitable — than the utilization of these lami- 
nated cliffs as dwellings by the Pueblo Indians who 
cultivated the areas below? 

Though the earliest forms of human habitations 
may be less ingenious than much of the architecture 
of the birds and the animals in structure and design 
they, nevertheless, possess greater interest for us not 
only by reason of what has been developed from them, 
but because by working backward, so to speak, we are 
able to trace architectural forms and designs through 
them directly to their origins in nature. When ana- 
lyzed, the different styles of architecture are seen to 
be descended even in their latest developments from 
the building materials of the days of primitive effort. 
In the earliest period of Egyptian civilization, there 
rose along the alluvial deposits of a great river an archi- 
tecture of reeds and mud. Parallelograms were built 
of bundles of reeds tied together at the top and set 
upright at intervals; spanning these lay a straight 
roof, suitable to the dry climate, made also of reeds 
and strengthened with clay. The pressure of the roof 
upon these reed pillars was resisted by a horizontal rule 
laid on top of the pillars. This is, obviously, the origin 
of the cornice. WTien stone began to be used the old 
pillar of clustered reeds, tied at the top, and bulging 
below, was rigorously copied. Moreover, on the mud 
structures ornamentation in high relief was clearly 
impossible, and we see in all Egyptian architecture a 
predilection in favor of the engraved figure and the 
hieroglyphics suitable to its first structures. 

[140] 



THE DWELLING HOUSE 

Assyrian architecture developed forms dependent on 
small units of construction. Possessing little timber, 
and practically no stone, they baked the soil into bricks 
of uniform size. These made solid walls, which, 
however, did not lend themselves to carvings or dec- 
orations in relief. The Assyrian method of ornamen- 
tation was, therefore, during its entire history, ' the 
superimposed slab of alabaster or granite, or a coating 
of highly glazed, multi-colored bricks. Moreover, a 
structural problem was created by the exclusive use of 
the small brick. In the absence of long timber beams 
and of large stones the erection of a second story, or 
even of ceiling and roof, became difficult. Necessity, 
therefore, forced upon the Assyrian the beautiful 
solution given by the arch. 

The Greek edifice is essentially adapted to the use 
of large stones jointed together without mortar. This 
method was transferred to Rome, and governed con- 
struction till the last century of the old era, when radi- 
cal transformations were wrought by the invention 
of a concrete formed of pebbles and mortar. The 
arch, devised in Assyria, was marvelously developed 
by the Roman mason, who had the plastic concrete 
to work with. Elaborate vaulting made necessary 
an accurate science of abutment, and gave rise to forms 
of great complexity. Ornament was no longer a part 
of the body of the structure as with the Greeks, but 
became a drapery for the undecorative concrete of 
the original wall. 

It will be seen, then, how the great essential differences 
in the architecture of Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and Rome 

[141] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

were due primarily to the geological formations of 
the regions in which they originated. When civili- 
zation had forced its way into the almost limitless 
forests of Northern Europe, a typical timber architec- 
ture was developed which later adapted some of its 
peculiarities to edifices of stone. 

By the thirteenth century Gothic architecture had 
reached a marvelous stage of development. But the 
stone used was no longer the granite and marble of 
the ancients. The material had a tendency to split 
and crumble. This reduced the unit of construction, 
and still retained the arch which now assumed a pointed 
form. 

The various architectural styles have been developed, 
therefore, through the acquisition of knowledge of the 
properties of materials, and their use in the manner 
indicated as best by this knowledge. Of course, 
other forces than those purely physical operated in 
architectural development, and of these the most power- 
ful and noteworthy have been those created by political 
creeds and social customs. All of these enter into the 
evolution of the habitation or dwelling-house. 

Habitations were originally designed as a shelter from 
the elements. The form of shelter which, naturally, 
would suggest itself first was that which called for the 
least ingenuity; namely, a conical structure of logs 
and boughs with walls and roof as one element. When 
the inevitable demand for increase of size made itself 
felt, there were two ways to meet it; by increasing 
the circumference and retaining the circular form; or 
by dividing the structure in two, separating the portions 

[142] 



THE DWELLING HOUSE 

and erecting sloping side walls to join them. The 
latter method gave a ground plan in the shape of an 
elongated rectangle with two semi-circular ends. It 
is clear that this rectangle could be lengthened indefi- 
nitely by adding to the sides sections or "bays." From 
these bays, ells, wings, towers, and other additions 
have been developed, but they are, after all, only excres- 
cences on the rectangular ground-plan. 

A village unearthed near Glastonbury, England, 
revealed a collection of conical houses built of wattle- 
and-clay, dating all the way from 300 B.C. to the time 
of the Roman occupation. These houses are almost 
precisely like those of prehistoric times found in North- 
ern Italy, and they have their counterparts in Ireland 
and Scotland, where several of them are often united. 
They are like the primitive hut in form, and differ from 
it only as their structural materials may require a more 
ingenious manipulation. They represent the first step 
in house-building; and it is interesting to find that the 
conical shape persisted even after stone was used, and 
after the floor was divided into apartments. This 
was, of course, due to the fact that the imitative faculty 
was stronger than the imaginative. 

The inadequacy of the primitive dwelling to meet the 
rigors of winter led to the development along other 
lines, the construction of pit dwellings, or caves, some- 
times two stories in height, sunk from three to ten feet 
below the surface of the ground, and entered by hori- 
zontal tunnels. Their roofs were made of interlaced 
boughs and clay. A series of these caves was often 
united by subterranean passageways, as may be seen 

[143] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

in certain ruins near Bologna, Italy. Such habitations 
are still built in the valley of the Euphrates. 

The rectangular structure in its simplest form con- 
sisted merely of two bent trees set opposite each other 
in the ground, their apexes joined by a ridge-pole. 
It is thus suggestive of an inverted boat. It had no 
walls, except the gable-ends, and its roof sloped to 
the ground. The bays were thrown out between the 
bent- tree arches, which stood always sixteen feet apart. 
This distance of sixteen feet was not accidental; it was 
exactly the space required for four oxen to stand abreast, 
and these bays were used as stalls. The bay thus be- 
came a unit of measurement, and it still does service 
through the medium of its modern equivalent, the rod. 

The primitive structure received a notable modifi- 
cation when its sloping roof was shortened and perpen- 
dicular walls erected. This was done by lengthening 
the ends of the tie-beam, until it was the length of the 
base of the arch formed by the two trees. Then long 
beams, called pons, or pans, were laid at the ends of 
the beams and rafters placed between the pons and 
the ridge-pole. After this the erection of a wall was 
easily possible. 

The first walled houses were built of wattle-and- 
daub, then copied in stone and brick. In a somewhat 
highly developed condition the early walled houses were 
built on this plan: Within the doorway, which was on 
the street, stood a covered porch with a screen at the 
back; this screen, known in England as a speer, had 
a bench at its base and a shelf along its top. Behind 
it lay the floor or threshing-floor, which resembled, 

[i44] 



THE DWELLING HOUSE 

in shape and position, the Roman atrium, for on its 
two sides were built apartments facing inward. In 
the case of the house we are considering these apart- 
ments were used as stalls, and a fodder- trough lay 
between them and the threshing-floor. On the right 
of the entrance stood the cows, and over their heads 
were built into the wall the bunks of the women ser- 
vants; from the left the horses gazed over at the cows, 
and above their heads were the sleeping-niches of the 
men servants. 

The back part of the threshing-floor was the sanctum 
of the family, and contained the hearth, at the right and 
left of which were the berths of the men and women 
of the family. This apartment was called the fire- 
room. At each end of the building a ladder gave access 
to the uncovered second story — uncovered of necessity, 
for the chimney had not yet been invented, and an 
open space to the sky for the escape of smoke was 
essential. 

This plan was later modified by transferring the 
entrance door from the gable-end to the side wall, and 
separating the threshing-floor from the fire-room by 
a vestibule. These changes, slight and superficial as 
they really were, greatly obscured the basilica plan 
from which the dwelling sprang, and which in reality, 
though not in appearance, it retained. Vitruvius, who 
wrote in Rome during the age of Augustus, speaks of 
dwellings built on this model, and Galen describes 
similar houses in Asia Minor in the second century of 
our era. The type still exists in Friesland and in Sax- 
ony, and also in Yorkshire, where it is named a coir. 

VOL. LX. — IO [ 14^ ] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

In the British Museum is a model of an Egyptian 
house consisting of a first floor with pantries and 
chambers built around a central court, and a stair- 
case; this staircase leads to a chamber above, of 
which the second story consists. It is not difficult to 
see the analogy between this structure and the rect- 
angular cattle shed. The Egyptian house possessed 
a portico with massive columns; its doors were mul- 
tiplied and stained fantastically; the intercolumnar 
panels which were its walls were decorated; mottoes 
were painted over lintel and impost; balconies were 
thrown out; its window-facings were carved. But all 
this developed logically from a simple court with cham- 
bers facing inward. 

The Assyrians disguised the same primitive plan 
by building on terraces as a protection against floods, 
whence came the first motif of Assyrian architecture. 
The ruins of the palace of Persepolis, which show 
the Persian adaptation of the Assyrian style, rise on 
platforms of rock along the foot of a mountain, and 
each terrace is surrounded by huge, irregular blocks 
of marble. A balustraded staircase, twenty- two feet 
wide and containing one hundred and four steps to 
the first terrace, gives entrance to the western end of 
the building. At the summit rise two great pillars 
with colossal low reliefs. A court with four columns 
leads to a second portico. At the right of this is a cis- 
tern hollowed out of the solid rock, into which water 
was brought by subterranean ducts. Then the stair- 
case continues, and the terraces repeat themselves in 
variation of design. 

[i 4 6] 



THE DWELLING HOUSE 

The Greek house, with its double-court construc- 
tion, is a familiar type of dwelling. On entering his 
house from the street, the Greek found himself in a 
vestibule from which he gained a vista of the colon- 
naded apartment of the men. To the right and left 
were doors opening into pantries and servants' apart- ,' 
ments. Crossing the vestibule he entered a square < 
or oblong court, opening to the sky, and surrounded 
by apartments — libraries, art-galleries, dining-halls, 
bed-rooms, etc. The plan reminds one of a steamer's 
cabin surrounded by staterooms. At the rear of the 
court, to the right, a staircase led to the second story, 
similarly designed, but only partially spanning the 
ground floor. Through a second vestibule he entered 
a second court, opening out in the same manner into 
apartments on each side. At its rear lay a garden on 
which the most elegant of the guest-rooms faced. 
This inner court was formerly supposed to have been 
exclusively the house of the women, not unlike the 
Oriental harem, but recent investigation has estab- 
lished the belief that it was the place of the family life. 

The Roman house also passed through the same 
stages as that of other countries. There was the hut; 
and — instead of the inverted boat — the parallelogram 
with the flat roof used as a garden and pleasure ground; 
the house of many courts, which grew into a very 
forest of columns and arcades; an enchanted land 
of line and color with carvings, paintings, mosaics, 
entablatures, gildings, terra-cottas, and fountains. 

The difference between the country and the city 
house which now exists has always existed in some 

[i47] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

measure. It may, however, be accepted as a general 
proposition that the country house tends to spread 
laterally and longitudinally, the city house perpen- 
dicularly. In the narrow streets of the Middle Ages 
a form of city architecture developed which, striving 
after light and air, hung one story out beyond another, 
so that the profile of the house was like an inverted 
staircase. This style was fostered by the custom 
of having booths at the front of houses for the display 
of wares. These wares showed to advantage in the 
jutting stories, till the street became so darkened by 
the over-arching gables that the purpose of the style 
was quite defeated. In these structures we first see 
the tendency to turn the face of the house outward 
upon the street. 

After the close of the Roman occupation timber 
architecture prevailed in England till the feudal castle 
was introduced after the Norman conquest. When 
Alfred the Great rebuilt London and founded the 
University of Oxford he built of wood and thatch. 
The timber used was oak, framed together by mortice 
and tenon. The gaps in the framework were filled in 
with clay, and with straw plastered over. The founda- 
tion was usually a three-foot stone structure. 

The nucleus of the feudal castle was the tower. 
Its battlemented turrets gave wide views over the sur- 
rounding country, and in its depths dark deeds could 
be perpetrated without probability of their being 
revealed. A central tower was connected by walls of 
masonry, often twenty feet thick, with end towers, 
toward which at right angles again ran massive walls 

[148] ' 



THE DWELLING HOUSE 

till the familiar quadrilateral court was formed once 
more. These walls were frequently four or five stories 
high. This fortress finally gave way to the palace of 
the Renaissance, and it is interesting to note the sur- 
vival, in a transmuted form, of the martial tower in 
the decorative tourelle — the turret and oriel — of these 
peaceful and ornate mansions. When Henry VIII 
confiscated the monastic institutions of England, many 
convents were turned into manor houses. Domestic 
architecture in England now became enriched; gables 
increased, pediments appeared over gable windows, 
and these were molded and adorned with pinnacles, 
finials, and vanes. These weather vanes were often 
musical boxes wound by the breeze. 

So far we have considered the dwelling-house as a 
whole. If we turn to the individual parts, we find that 
each has a separate and interesting historical develop- 
ment of its own. We have mentioned that the erection 
of complete upper stories was impossible prior to the 
invention of the flue. It will be interesting to inquire 
when this particular construction, which to the modem 
world seems indispensable, was first used. Its origin 
depends, of course, upon one's definition of the term 
''chimney." In its most radical sense it can be ex- 
tended to comprise a hole in the ceiling or wall for 
the escape of smoke, and these holes were probably 
contemporaneous with the discovery of fire. The 
translator of the third verse of the thirteenth chapter 
of Hosea, for instance, has rendered as chimney the 
Hebrew word arubeh, which means a hole or opening, 
or, specially, a window. Such looseness of termi- 

[i49] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

nology is, however, deceptive ; a chimney should signify 
specifically a flue built up along a wall and raised above 
a roof. In this sense chimneys seem not to have 
existed prior to the fourteenth century a.d. Vitruvius 
warns the Romans against elaborately carved cornices 
in the fire-room, on account of discoloration from smoke. 
The houses of Pompeii and Herculaneum, which have 
taught us most of what we know regarding the Roman 
and Greek house, present no trace of chimneys. Seneca 
tells us that whenever a feast was held special watch- 
men were appointed to keep guard over the house of 
entertainment, lest disaster should result from the 
unusually ardent blaze in the kitchen. 

Columella gives directions for the height of ceilings 
in order to minimize danger from fire. This would 
all have been unnecessary, of course, had chimneys 
existed in his day. The preparation of wood in ways 
to diminish the amount of smoke given out in combus- 
tion, constituted a Roman industry. Nor was the 
smoke, which could not be done away with, regarded 
altogether as a waste product. Around ancient kitch- 
ens are found places for smoking meats and wines; 
and coops for a certain breed of fowl supposed to 
thrive in smoke ! We read of eye-diseases due to smoke ; 
Horace was once afflicted with one. 

Chimneys first enter written history in an account 
of an earthquake in Venice in the fourteenth century, 
when several are said to have been thrown down. In 
his history of Padua, written about 1390 a.d., Gale- 
azzo Cataro tells the story of a Paduan nobleman 
who went to Rome and put up at the " Sign of the Moon." 

[150] 



THE DWELLING HOUSE 

Suffering from cold, he sought a fire and could secure 
nothing but a brazier, the fumes from whose smol- 
dering wood blinded and choked him. Disgusted 
with the unprogressive spirit of Rome he sent to Padua 
for masons, whom he ordered to build two chimneys in 
the inn. These were the first chimneys erected in the 
Imperial City. 

Chimneys were soon adopted in the castles of Eng- 
land, and, in consequence, the hearth, which formerly 
stood in the middle of the room, was moved to a side 
wall. They were at first constructed of wood, but in 
14 1 9 this material was prohibited. For a long time 
the chimney remained closed at the top, the smoke 
escaping through perforations in the sides. Fires were 
by law extinguished at a certain hour in the evening. 
This custom gave origin to the curfew-bell, which had 
nothing to do with prayer, but only with municipal 
safety, the bell announcing the hour for putting out 
the fires. 

It was not till the sixteenth century that the use of 
chimneys in dwelling-houses became general. The 
Turks and Greeks of to-day do not use them, but per- 
petuate an old Persian method of heating. They 
dig a hole in the ground and set in it an iron vessel, 
square or round, and two spans in depth. When a 
fire of coal or wood is well started they place over the 
little stove a sort of table, and over this table a covering, 
a kind of quilt which retains the heat. Around this 
stove sits the family. The fire is kept active by means 
of a pipe which enters the stove at one point and emerges 
from the floor at the other; this is in fact the prolonged 

[151] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

funnel of a bellows which is attached to its outer end. 
By the addition of metal plates this arrangement be- 
comes serviceable also for cooking. 

It is curious to find that the principle of the hot- 
air furnace was discovered prior to the seemingly simple 
device of the chimney. In the time of Seneca, Roman 
baths were equipped with underground stoves from 
which hot air was conducted by means of pipes around 
the walls of the building. These pipes opened into 
the rooms by apertures similar to registers, except 
that they were so designed as to be ornamental. They 
were usually carved in the form of animal heads. 

The excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum have 
thrown more light on the private houses of antiquity 
than it was possible to receive from literature. Till 
recently it was believed that the use of glass for windows 
was of modern origin, but the discovery of a sheet of 
plate glass at Herculaneum gives us one more glimpse 
of the finished civilization which existed before the 
Christian era. 

The origin and early history of glass manufacture 
is obscure, but we do know that the first glass factory 
known to history was at Tyre. Glass was known at 
Rome in the time of Tiberius, when an artist was 
alleged to have discovered the secret of making it 
flexible. For this miracle he was condemned to death. 
Glass was used for ornaments and for household uten- 
sils in the barbarous island of Britain before Caesar and 
his legions entered it, but it was not employed for win- 
dows till after the Norman Conquest, and then only in 
dwellings of great elegance. During the reign of 



THE DWELLING HOUSE 

Henry II it began to be more generally substituted for 
the oiled paper, the cauls of colts, the canvas, and the 
opalescent shells which had heretofore covered window 
openings, and which even to-day are to be seen in re- 
mote districts of Italy where glass is still too great a 
luxury for general use. In the sixteenth century huge 
glass windows became an expensive fad in the resi- 
dences of the English nobility. We read that "Hard- 
wick Hall had more glass than wall!" Windows were 
not then considered part of the house, but were dis- 
posed of separately in the wills of the owners. They 
were covered with tracery, and set in casings of brick 
faced with flints, stone, or black-glazed bricks. 

In the dry climates of the East roofs are often flat. 
The flat roof of modern Turkish houses is equipped 
with a cylindrical stone roller, which after a rain is 
rolled backward and forward over the surface to dry 
it. The ancient Egyptians built their roofs flat, but 
the Greeks had a roof like the letter A, which they 
covered with slabs of marble. The Romans used this 
same style of roof, and finished it with parapets and 
balustrades. The roofs of the Roman court were of 
five varieties. Three of these sloped inward, leaving 
in the center a flat area for the collection of rain water; 
the fourth variety covered the entire atrium and sloped 
outward, allowing the rain to run into gutters and thence 
into drains which led the water away from the house, 
or into subterranean cisterns; the fifth variety was 
probably made of plate glass. The long roofs in the 
timber districts of Germany and Switzerland are ex- 
treme illustrations of protection against storms. The 

[153] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

covering of roofs received great attention from beauty- 
loving antiquity. Semicircular tiles overlapping each 
other, so as to produce pleasing effects of light and 
shade, were in great favor. The architect of the 
Middle Ages carved his ridge and gable. 

We do not know how the ceilings of the ancient 
dwellings were ornamented, but we read of the magic 
panels in the ceiling of Nero's Golden House, which 
revolved, dropping flowers and perfumes. It is prob- 
able that ceilings were usually divided into compart- 
ments and painted, each compartment having its own 
design. Whitewash and plaster were commonly used 
as a foundation for decorative work. Ceilings, walls, 
and floors grew very ornate in European architecture 
after the thirteenth century, when Moslem influence 
was first felt. Arabesques in stucco, mosaics, paint- 
ings, variegated stones, and gildings suggested the 
splendors of antiquity. The walls of the Golden Sa- 
loon of the Alhambra are made of pebbles and red 
clay wonderfully combined. The arched ceiling of 
this hall is sixty feet and four inches high, and is com- 
posed of pieces of strong wood, keyed and attached 
so that the whole structure shakes from the slightest 
pressure at the summit. 

The floors of ancient Egypt were built of stone, or 
of lime concrete. The rafters were of date trees, with 
transverse layers of palm branches. The floors built 
in England by the Romans were of colored earthen- 
ware tiles, and of glazed mosaics, but the Anglo-Saxon 
used flagstone or blue slate, and on this he drew 
patterns in chalk which disappeared at each cleaning, 

[154] 



THE DWELLING HOUSE 

and were faithfully renewed by the housekeeper. 
Houses were then painted " archil" or vivid blue, 
combined sometimes with yellow. During Elizabeth's 
reign floors were so rough that a covering of rush or 
of tapestry was used, "defending apparel, as traynes 
of gownes and kertles from the dust." In the seven- 
teenth century the old Roman floor was revived in 
England; this was made of hard white stones, about 
an inch thick, laid in cement. 

Staircases were often made a sumptuous decoration 
in the house of antiquity, but in England, prior to the 
reign of Henry VII, they were secreted in towers, 
and considered merely as a means of ascent. They 
were then called turnpikes. But in the reign of Eliza- 
beth they became a feature of great magnificence. 
A contemporary thus describes the stairs at Wimbledon 
palace: "The east stairs of Wimbledon lead from the 
marble parlour to the great gallery and the dining- 
room, and are richly adorned with wainscot of oak 
round the outsides thereof, all well gilt with fillet and 
stars of golde. The steps of these stairs are in number 
thirty-three, and one six feet six inches long, adorned 
with five foot paces, all varnished black and white and 
checquer-worke, the height of which foot pace is a 
very large one, and benched with a wainscot benche, all 
garnished with golde. Under the stayres, and eight 
steps above the said marble parlour, is a little complete 
roome, called the den of lions, floored with painted 
deal checquer-worke." 

The doors of ancient dwelling-houses were low; the 
pyramidal shape, popular in Egypt, was sometimes 

[iss] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

used in Greece. Ancient doors turned on pivots, not on 
hinges, and this construction still obtains in the East. 
These pivots were sometimes of metal, but more gen- 
erally of wood, like the door, and they worked in 
sockets. In Egypt doors turned on valves, which 
revolved round metal pins, many of which have been 
found in the ruins of Thebes. They were fastened 
to the door with bronze nails, whose heads were orna- 
mented. The upper valve had an arm at the back 
to prevent the bruising of the wall. The effect of these 
is not unlike the Tudor strap-hinges, which were nailed, 
bolted, and riveted against the door, and ornamented. 
The present Egyptian lock is probably the one used in 
antiquity. It is sometimes of wood, sometimes of 
iron, and is opened by a key made of several fixed 
pins which correspond to an equal number of pins 
depending into the tongue of the lock. The first key 
of which we hear was made 1336 B.C. and was used 
in the summer palace of Eglon, King of Moab. 

Most Egyptian and Greek doors opened inward, 
whereas Roman doors opened outward. They were 
all equipped with bolts and iron handles as well as 
locks. Secret doors were constructed with marvelous 
nicety during the feudal period. It is a curious fact 
that the hall of the Teutonic chieftain never had more 
than one door. To this architectural peculiarity the 
romantic novelist owes a large debt of gratitude. 
Caught in his cul-de-sac by an enemy, the chieftain 
had no means of escape. His ingenuity would seem 
to have been inferior to that of the rodent, who always 
contrives a hole of exit; but the argument probably 

[156] 



THE DWELLING HOUSE 

was that two doors could not be guarded as securely 
as one. 

Windows on the Continent swing outward on hinges 
like doors; in England they descend and ascend on 
weights as in America. But in modern architecture 
they are placed on the exterior of the building, whereas 
in ancient times they invariably overlooked the in- 
terior court. This constitutes the most radical differ- 
ence between the ancient and the modern house. 

It is commonly supposed that another great differ- 
ence lies in the extent of the ground area in the house 
of antiquity, in contradistinction to our narrow struc- 
tures, and in the height of our houses, in contradis- 
tinction to the low buildings of past centuries. 
These differences, however, are not as radical as they 
seem from the superficial description of the dwellings 
themselves. For instance, we read that the house of 
Pansa contained fifty rooms on the first floor, and im- 
mediately the image of an exceedingly large ground 
space is evoked; but in reality the house was only 
one hundred feet wide, and two hundred deep. The in- 
dividual apartments were very small in the days when 
life lay nearer to the communal state than it does now. 
On the other hand, three stories were by no means 
uncommon, although the upper stories were not com- 
plete till after the fourteenth century. 

We have seen that the original unit of the dwelling 
was the court, and that this developed into the hall of 
the Middle Ages — the huge banquet-hall, with a door 
at one end and a dais for the host at the other. With 
the growing individualization of life this hall became 

[157] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

smaller and smaller, and the individual apartments 
expanded in inverse ratio, until we have that dark and 
narrow alley which in the modern dwelling is called 
a hall. This, though a common meeting-place for 
the occupants of the dwelling, is indeed an ignoble 
descendant of the stately apartment of the mediaeval 
castle. 

The new continent of North America inspired her 
builders to a distinct type of school of domestic archi- 
tecture. In the Colonial houses there is the expression 
of thought and feeling very different from that ex- 
pressed in the houses of other countries. In the 
breadth of door, window, and hearth dwells the senti- 
ment of emancipation, and the sacredness of the family. 
The soft browns with which the houses are often painted 
and which recede into the browns of tree and ground, 
and the grays and whites which also are favorite colors, 
and which are as austere as Puritanism itself, tell the 
story of simple ideals. 

Both necessity and inclination have made man use 
the greatest variety of material, both natural and arti- 
ficial, in building his home. Necessity has played a 
far greater part than the other factor, however, par- 
ticularly in the early stages of progress toward civili- 
zation. And even to-day there are so many restricting 
elements governing the building of habitable struc- 
tures, that civilized man finds himself almost as badly 
hampered as his primitive ancestor in the selection of 
his building material. 

Every man, whether savage or civilized, has to con- 
sider two great factors in selecting the material for his 

[158] 



THE DWELLING HOUSE 

buildings — the elements, and his enemies of the animal 
kingdom. Indeed these are the two great factors 
that have forced him to go into dwellings at all. And 
the richest and most highly developed urban dweller 
is influenced by these two things almost as much 
to-day in the construction of his house, as was his 
primitive ancestor dwelling in his skin or mud hut 
on the shores of the Mediterranean. He does not 
fear the jungle night-prowlers that menaced the hut- 
dweller, to be sure, but he has to guard himself against 
other night-prowlers, quite as fierce and far more cun- 
ning than the four-footed ones of the jungle. 

The one common enemy which baffled the ancient 
builder as it still baffles the modern, is fire. The 
dwellers on the equator, and those near the poles, are 
troubled very little by this enemy; but those living 
in intermediate regions must always have it in mind 
in choosing the materials for their homes. 

Until comparatively recent times the problem of 
transporting building material long distances has been 
so great that the surrounding conditions determined 
largely the materials that would be used for construct- 
ing most of the buildings at any given place. But the 
advent of steam so modified transportation methods, 
and steam-driven machinery so facilitated the gather- 
ing of building material, that local conditions now have 
very little bearing on the material used in construction. 
In place of the Kansas squatter's adobe cabin, made 
of material gathered within a radius of a mile or less 
from his door, the fairly well-to-do Kansas farmer of 
to-day thinks nothing of building a modest house with 

[159] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

cement that comes from Pennsylvania, lumber from 
Maine, brick from Missouri, and paint manufac- 
tured in New Jersey. He furnishes his house with 
articles that come from the four corners of the earth, 
and heats it with coal that has to be hauled fifteen 
hundred miles. Distance is no longer a determining 
factor as to material used in building; and this elimi- 
nation of space from the problem has played, and is 
playing, an enormously important part in the selection 
of building material all over the world. Indeed we 
shall see a little later that it makes it possible, in many 
instances, for man to build better buildings, for less 
money, by using artificial products hauled thousands 
of miles, than by making use of the most natural and 
abundant ones furnished by nature close at hand, 
such as stone. 

Until the closing years of the nineteenth century 
the materials employed in constructing buildings, and 
the methods of using them, had changed very little 
from those of the builders of ancient times. Wood, 
brick, and stone were in use as far back as we have the 
records of history; fire "brick" and even a form of 
cement used to form an "artificial stone" was known 
to the Greeks and Romans. The dome of the Pan- 
theon, built two thousand years ago, is of this material, 
as is also the Aqueduct of Vejus. But in the last 
two decades of the nineteenth century great strides 
were made by the modern builders, who were then, 
for the first time since the beginning of the Christian 
Era, able to produce something new in the architec- 
tural world, by the use of steel and cement. The 

[160] 



THE DWELLING HOUSE 

construction of a modern skyscraper would have been 
quite beyond the possibilities of any architect who lived 
prior to the present age of cheap steels. The Roman 
architect might have been able to raise a structure 
as high as the Singer Building in New York city, but he 
would have had to sacrifice all interior space for its 
support, just as in the case of the pyramids along the 
Nile. The greatness of the achievement of the late 
nineteenth-century architect does not lie in the fact 
that he can build so high, but that he can leave so 
much space in the interiors of his high buildings. The 
practical revolution in architectural plans and results 
made possible by the new methods will receive de- 
tailed consideration in succeeding chapters. 



VOL. IX — II 



[i6i] 



VII 

THE MODERN SKYSCRAPER 

THE average city office building of to-day is 
the outgrowth of dire necessity. Nothing 
short of that could have produced it; for man 
is essentially a terrestrial animal, whatever arboreal 
habits his ancestors may have had. Left unmolested 
by enemies, and with the stress of fighting nature for 
existence eliminated, he would seldom have built 
two-story buildings, to say nothing of structures of 
twenty, forty, or fifty stories. But fortunately for 
progress it has never been the lot of civilized man 
anywhere in the world to escape both these dangers at 
any one time. As a result upper stories have been 
added to his houses either as a means of defense or 
for economy. 

At remote periods in history when land, building 
materials, and labor were cheap, there was no reason 
to add upper stories for the sake of economy; but in 
those times the element of danger from enemies was 
proportionately greater than in recent years. Preda- 
tory animals and men had always to be reckoned with ; 
so that, although land and building materials cost 
little, it was necessary to raise protecting walls higher 
and higher in proportion to the importance of the 
tenant. The sky-scraping donjon, or keep, of the 

[1621 




EXCAVATING FOR THE FOUNDATION OF A SKYSCRAPER. 

As seen here the steam shovel is about to discharge its load into the 
waiting wagon. The operation of scooping up the dirt and placing it on 
the wagon is done mechanically, one workman controlling the movements 
of the machine by means of levers. 



THE MODERN SKYSCRAPER 

mediaeval castle, the highest occupied structures of 
the Middle Ages, was the product of danger. 

But in modern times, since houses are no longer fort- 
resses, economic reasons alone have forced builders to 
add more and more stories to their structures. Prac- 
tical constructors roughly calculate the cost of a building 
by the spread of its roof, not by the number of its 
stories. It requires no more land, no larger founda- 
tion, and no more roofing material to erect a five-story 
building than to build a one-story structure of corre- 
sponding horizontal dimensions. And while, of course, 
every added foot of height adds to the cost of con- 
struction, this cost is far less than if the increase in 
size were in a horizontal instead of in a vertical direction. 

During the first half of the nineteenth century the 
" normal height" of buildings in the country, small 
towns, and villages, was two stories; in the larger 
cities three, or even four, stories; and in the largest 
cities, five stories, except for ornamental purposes. 
At that time cities were relatively small and the per- 
centage of persons living in the country relatively 
large. But the last half of the nineteenth century saw 
the people crowding into the larger cities in ever in- 
creasing numbers, focussing on certain centers, and 
overcrowding many districts so that the price of land 
in such places rose to fabulous figures. As a result 
it became necessary either to dig cellars deeper, raise 
roofs higher, or do both, to accommodate the popu- 
lation. 

But now man's physical limitations offered an ob- 
stacle to unlimited vertical extensions in building con- 

[163] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

struction. Four flights of stairs, to reach a fifth story, 
represent about the limit to which man would ascend 
for pleasure or business except when absolutely nec- 
essary. The case stood thus: higher buildings were 
absolutely necessary; muscular exertion refused to 
carry man higher. The implication was obvious — 
some substitute for muscle must be found. 

The substitute took the form of the passenger ele- 
vator, introduced in 1853 by Elisha G. Otis; and this 
invention, and one other that came a quarter of a cen- 
tury later, made possible the modern skyscraper. 

The development of the elevator will be referred to 
presently. The other invention was that of the steel- 
frame construction, with which it was possible to erect 
high buildings having relatively thin walls. 

THE STEEL FRAME 

By the old method of constructing with stone or 
brick, the walls of a twenty-story building would have 
to be so thick near the base that the rooms on the ground 
floor would be reduced to mere tunnels, scarcely wide 
enough for the staircases and elevator shafts. But 
by using steel girders and braces, and filling in the 
spaces with some such substances as tile, brick, or 
stone, a thin veneer on the outside, or a surrounding 
shell, the walls of a tall building may be kept of almost 
uniform thickness from base to top. 

The steel frame of a modern skyscraper is really 
"a cantilever bridge stood on end." Perhaps the 
improved bridges of the early eighties suggested the 

[164] 



THE MODERN SKYSCRAPER 

steel-frame construction in buildings. Be that as it 
may, the work of the modern bridge-builder and high- 
building construction have much in common. 

A transitional stage between the old-time masonry 
construction, and the modern " skeleton" building, 
was what is known as the "cage" construction. In 
this type of building which is now practically obsolete 
the walls are built of masonry and are self-sustaining, 
but the interior construction is carried by steel frames. 
This form of construction had scarcely been invented 
before it was replaced by the present form of skeleton 
construction, in which the steel frame forms a cage 
which is surrounded by masonry. 

The first building constructed on this principle 
was the Home Fire Insurance Company in Chicago, 
designed by Mr. Jenny, in 1884, although Mr. Post, 
in New York, had furnished an example of the "cage" 
construction in the interior court of the Produce Ex- 
change somewhat earlier. 

Just at this time the newly discovered Bessemer 
process had placed cheap steel on the market — another 
product of necessity, and most timely. So that by 
the opening years of the last decade of the nineteenth 
century the architectural world had witnessed a rev- 
elation in construction probably never equalled in 
history — certainly not in a corresponding length of time. 

In effect "cloud-scraping" buildings were manu- 
factured in the steel mills, brick yards, cement factories, 
and terra-cotta works, transported piece-meal to the 
building site, and put together, each piece fitted into 
the exact place designed for it. Nor did the order in 

[165] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

which these pieces were put together have to be fol- 
lowed in exact rotation in every instance. Foundation 
stones did not necessarily precede the masonry of the 
upper stories once the steel frame was up, as was nec- 
essary in the older form of construction. As the 
masonry of each story rested on steel supports it was 
now possible for the masons to begin, literally, at the 
top stories and build the walls of the upper stories 
first, or to work on the walls of several different stories 
at once. Indeed it was not an uncommon sight to 
see a tall building in the course of erection in which 
the masons were laying the walls of several stories 
simultaneously. 

In these new buildings the modern architects had 
to meet certain conditions and solve certain problems 
that would have puzzled the builders of a century ago. 
Among these was the question of heating and fire- 
proofing. Elsewhere a description of this fire-proofing 
is given ; the problem of heating was a relatively simple 
one, thanks to the application of steam and hot water. 

THE PROBLEM OF HEATING 

Like many other anomalies in the progress of civi- 
lization hot-water heating represents one of the oldest 
as well as the newest methods of heating buildings. 
At the very time when the ancient Greeks were heat- 
ing their houses with open fires, the smoke from which 
made its exit through a hole in the roof like the fire 
in an Indian tepee — since the Greeks were not familiar 
with chimneys — their neighbors, the Romans, were 

[166] 




SKYSCRAPERS IN PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTION. 

The steel frame-work in the center of the picture is the tower of the 
Singer Building, New York. The white-walled building in the foreground 
is the City Investing Building. 



THE MODERN SKYSCRAPER 

heating their rooms with hot- water pipes. Such heat- 
ing pipes still exist in the ruins of Roman buildings. 

Of course the hot-water heating system of the Ro- 
mans was a crude and relatively simple affair. It fell 
into disuse after the Roman period until the latter part 
of the nineteenth century. Indeed for some centuries 
after the invention of chimneys and the accompanying 
fire-places, there was little progress in house-heating 
devices. Iron stoves, or receptacles for holding fire 
called by that name, were sometimes constructed for 
special purposes even as early as the fifteenth century; 
but these were not practical for general heating pur- 
poses, and the beginning of the era of modern house- 
heating dates from the invention of the " Franklin stove " 
by Benjamin Franklin in 1744. This stove was little 
more than a fire-place made of iron so that it would 
project to some extent into the room and thus make the 
heat from three sides available. A little later, when a 
short pipe was added, the fourth side was also utilized 
for heating. This stove was revolutionary in its effects 
as a fuel-saver and heat-giver. With an equal amount 
of fuel this stove would heat at least four times the 
space heated by a fire-place, and heat it more uniformly. 
When dampers and drafts had been added it became 
possible to control the fire in a manner never known 
before; and for the first time the world — particularly 
the American world, which adopted it at once — came 
to know the comfort of heated houses. 

In the century following Franklin's invention so 
many improvements were made upon the original 
stove that the old type practically ceased to exist except 

[167] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

in a much modified form. Meanwhile many adap- 
tations of the stove to heating had been developed. 
Stove pipes had been lengthened so that it was no 
longer necessary to have the stove placed near the 
chimney, and long heat-conducting pipes had been 
added so that an entire building could be heated from 
a stove placed in the basement — the hot-air furnace, 
still a very popular form of heat distributor, partic- 
ularly for small buildings. 

A very marked improvement had been made, about 
the middle of the nineteenth century, in stoves con- 
structed so as to burn anthracite coal — base burners, 
and magazine-feed stoves. These were soon on the 
market in all sizes, from tiny heaters for hall rooms 
to great furnaces for supplying heat to huge buildings. 
Steam, which had become the most universal source 
of power, had also been adapted to heating. The 
first building heated by steam in the United States 
was the Eastern Hotel, of Boston, in 1845; and in the 
same year one of the large woolen mills in Burlington, 
Vermont, established a similar system of heating. 
Hot-water heating, where water is made to circulate 
through pipes instead of steam, had also come into 
use. So that the skyscraper constructors did not lack 
facilities for heating their many-storied buildings, 
no matter how far skyward they pushed them. The 
great obstacle for many years, as has been said, was 
the lack of transportation facilities; but the introduc- 
tion of swift-moving and reasonably safe passenger 
elevators removed the final obstacle. This device must 
now claim our attention. 

[168] 



THE MODERN SKYSCRAPER 



THE ELEVATOR OR "LIFT" 

It should not be understood that a mere hoisting 
device for elevating or lowering freight or passengers 
constitutes an " elevator" in the commonly accepted 
meaning of the word. The use of such machines 
antedates the Christian Era — is as old as the use of 
block-and-tackle itself. For centuries men have uti- 
lized such devices in one form or another for unloading 
ships, operating mines, and transferring goods to and 
from the upper floors of buildings. But these primi- 
tive machines, although having most of the essential 
points of the modern elevator, lacked the all-important 
one — the device for stopping the fall of the car in case 
of a break in the hoisting apparatus. Until such a 
device was conceived the old-time hoist remained 
much too dangerous a contrivance for passenger use 
except where absolutely necessary as in the case of 
mine shafts. But in 1853 Elisha G. Otis exhibited 
at the World's Fair in the Crystal Palace, New York, 
an elevator which, for the first time, had a safety de- 
vice for stopping the fall of the car. Five years later 
the same inventor perfected a specially constructed 
steam engine for operating the machinery of such ele- 
vators, and the era of higher buildings was inaugurated. 

For the first ten years after this invention prac- 
tically the only power used for operating elevators 
was steam, and steam-propelled elevators are still 
used, although steadily declining in popularity. But 
the obvious disadvantage of such elevators in small 

[169] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

buildings, such as private dwellings, where it is not 
practical to keep a steam-boiler going at all times, 
soon made inventors look about them for other kinds 
of power. The most obvious one, and incidentally 
the oldest, was hydraulic pressure; and early in the 
seventies " hydraulic water balance elevators" were 
introduced and for a time rivalled steam elevators 
in popularity. 

The principle upon which these elevators worked 
was that of the balance, in which the heavier of two 
suspended weights caused the lighter one to rise. As 
applied to these elevators, an iron tank of water at 
one end of the hoisting cable acted as a weight for 
raising the cage at the other end of the cable. By 
means of valves water was admitted into the tank until 
its weight was greater than that of the loaded cage, the 
amount of water required depending upon the weight 
to be lifted. For lowering the cage the water was run 
out of the tank, allowing the cage to descend by its 
own weight, the speed being controlled by friction 
brakes. 

Despite the popularity of such elevators they were 
expensive to install and maintain, and rather compli- 
cated, and a few years after their introduction were 
displaced by the horizontal hydraulic type of elevator 
invented by the English engineer, William Armstrong. 
This type of hydraulic elevator, and its modified ver- 
tical form, are used to-day in greater numbers than 
any other form, although electric elevators are rapidly 
overhauling them in popularity. 

Unlike the "water balance elevator" the horizontal 

[170] 



THE MODERN SKYSCRAPER 

hydraulic elevator is dependent upon water pressure 
acting upon a piston in a closed cylinder. The power 
derived from this action is utilized in various ways 
to meet certain conditions. Thus the size and length 
of the cylinder are dependent upon the size of the eleva- 
tor, the length of the elevator shaft, and the amount 
of water pressure available. Where economy of space 
is necessary, short cylinders are used, in which the water 
pressure may be seven or eight hundred pounds to the 
square inch. By connecting these with several sets 
of pulleys, or sheaves, even a very short cylinder may 
be made to propel elevators in high buildings. Or 
just the opposite conditions may prevail, long cylin- 
ders and pistons being used to operate through rela- 
tively long distances under low water pressure obtained 
from the ordinary city main. But in any case the 
hydraulic engine is single-acting in such elevators, the 
weight of the car being utilized for the descent. 

A modification of this type of hydraulic elevator is 
the "pulling plunger " elevator, in which the weight 
of the piston is greater than the loaded car. In this 
type of elevator the water is expelled as the car ascends, 
driven out by the weight of the piston — just reversing 
the action of the ordinary hydraulic elevator — the water 
pressure being used to raise the piston and allow the 
car to descend. 

There is still another class of hydraulic elevators, 
known as the plunger, or direct-lift class, which in- 
stead of being pulled upward by cables are pushed up 
from below by a steel piston acting directly against the 
base of the car. The length of this steel piston and 

[171] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

the cylinder in which it works are the same as the 
elevator shaft and are set vertically in the ground be- 
neath the car. Thus the cylinder of such an elevator 
working in a one-hundred foot elevator shaft reaches 
to a depth of one hundred feet under ground. The car 
is raised by water pressure in the cylinder, the water 
being expelled in the descent. Such elevators do away 
with sheaves and winding-drums, use cables only for 
counter-poise weight, and are entirely practical even 
in very high buildings in metropolitan districts. 

In electrically operated elevators an electric motor 
takes the place of hydraulic pressure, being attached 
to suitable winding machinery, which operates the 
hoisting cables or plungers. Their advantage lies in 
the small space occupied by the power plant, and their 
speed and flexibility in operating place them in 
a class by themselves. Thus the "push button" con- 
trol elevators, which are popular in private residences, 
are so simple in operation that literally the only me- 
chanical skill required for operating is the ability to 
push a button. If a person wishes to ascend to the 
fifth floor, for example, he simply steps into the car, 
pushes the button marked "five" and the car ascends 
and stops at the proper landing. Should a person on 
any floor wish to call the car he simply pushes the call 
button and waits until the car arrives, which it does 
automatically, if not in use, stopping at the landing 
indicated. The door at this landing is also unlocked 
automatically, so that the passenger may step in and 
reach any other landing simply by pushing the button 
indicated. 

[172] 



THE MODERN SKYSCRAPER 



SAFETY DEVICES 

But after all, the various mechanisms for moving 
the elevator up and down are of minor importance 
from the passenger's point of view, when compared 
with the device for stopping the elevator in case of a 
breakage of the lifting apparatus. This was pointed 
out more than half a century ago by the first inventor 
of such a device and is just as true to-day. 

An elevator is really a railroad with a grade of ninety 
degrees, but differing from the ordinary railroad in 
that the car slides along two rails instead of pass- 
ing over them on wheels. The rails of the elevator, 
then, act only as guides for keeping the car in position 
except in case of accident, when they play an all-im- 
portant part in stopping the descent of the car. Many 
such devices have been invented, but practically all 
of these fall into one of two classes — those designed 
to act upon wooden rails, and those that act upon metal. 
The safety devices which act upon wooden rails do so 
by gouging into the wood, and may be in the form of 
safety dogs, or chisel-like structures; while those that 
act upon metal rails are usually in the form of nippers 
that grip the rail on either side. Some of these are 
controlled by the action of springs which allow the 
safety device to act only when the car is moving 
faster than a certain rate of speed — in short when it 
is actually falling. 

This type is used mostly on small elevators and is 
considered inferior to those that are controlled by some 

[i73] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

form of governor which remains inactive at normal 
speed; but when this speed is increased to twenty-five 
per cent, above normal they become instantly active, 
causing the powerful steel nippers to grip the guide 
rails with increasing pressure until the car is stopped. 
Obviously the action of these nippers must be rapid, 
since a falling body moves sixteen feet during the first 
second, and thrice that distance the next. But since 
the car must be descending at a fairly rapid rate before 
the safety clutches act at all, it is evident that if they 
acted instantaneously the passengers might receive 
a hard shock. They are arranged, therefore, so as to 
act gradually (relatively speaking, of course), their 
gripping force increasing evenly but steadily with every 
inch of descent. So that while the car is stopped 
quickly there is a graduated diminution in speed. In 
actual practice it has been found that the passengers 
seldom receive severe shocks when this system of safety 
clutch is used. 

Considering the number of persons that are carried 
every day in elevators and the amazingly small per- 
centage of accidents, the claim that the modern ele- 
vator is one of the most highly perfected mechanisms 
ever devised cannot be disputed. 

The telephone plays an important part in relieving 
the elevator service of the modern office building. 
It is estimated that ^without telephone service the num- 
ber of elevators required to handle the traffic in the 
ordinary skyscraper would consume so much space 
and so increase the cost of maintenance that the 
rentals for floor space would be prohibitive. 

[174] 



THE MODERN SKYSCRAPER 



NEW TOOLS AND NEW METHODS 

It is but a natural result of pressing demand that 
in developing the construction of the new steel-frame 
buildings new implements have been invented to fa- 
cilitate the builder. To give a complete list of these 
without discrimination as to their novelty and im- 
portance is of course out of the question. On the other 
hand no story of the progress of modern architectural 
construction can approach completeness that fails 
to give full credit to the various implements worked 
by compressed air, and known as pneumatic tools. 
In European countries, where the cost of manual labor 
is relatively low, the time element does not enter 
so greatly into the cost of construction. In America, 
however, where wages are high, and in large cities where 
the values of land make every day that a building site 
remains idle a very material loss to the owner, rapid 
construction is a necessity. 

It is to meet this demand that pneumatic tools with 
various other time-saving devices have come into 
prominence in recent years. 

In these pneumatic machines no new principle is 
involved, as it is possible to obtain the rotary or re- 
ciprocal motions with steam quite as well as with 
compressed air. Indeed in factories where corre- 
sponding stationary machines are used, such machines 
are often driven by steam. But steam is too hot for 
portable hand- mechanisms; and one of the great 
advantages of pneumatic tools is that they can be made 

[175] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

light enough so as to be carried to any part of a build- 
ing, connected to the compressed-air tank by a rubber 
cable. 

Every one who has been in the immediate vicinity 
of a modern steel-frame building in the course of con- 
struction is familiar with the sound, if not the mech- 
anism, of the pneumatic hammer used for riveting. 
It is utterly impossible to escape it. The shrill br-r-r-r-r 
of the rapidly repeated strokes, striking against the 
metal rivet at the rate of 1,500 to 3,500 blows a minute, 
can hardly fail to attract attention. This pneumatic 
hammer may be taken as a typical representative of 
the class of percussion tools adapted to many other 
purposes besides that of riveting. It is about three 
inches in diameter and eighteen inches long, containing 
a cylinder in which works a piston with a back and forth 
action, driven by compressed air admitted and exhausted 
by suitable openings. For convenience in holding 
there is a handle at one end which is held by the oper- 
ator, who presses the other end of the tool, which con- 
tains the rivet-set, against the red-hot rivet. He then 
presses the trigger-like throttle, admitting the com- 
pressed air, and holds the rapidly striking hammer 
in place until the riveting is completed — a matter of 
seconds only. 

As some counter-pressure is necessary for holding the 
rivet in place, these hammers are frequently made with 
a U-shaped end, particularly for special work in facto- 
ries. But since these are not practical when working 
in many places in steel-frame construction, the hammers 
for this purpose do not have the U-shaped end, as a 

[176] 



THE MODERN SKYSCRAPER 

rule, counter-pressure being made by a man holding 
a sledge against the end of the rivet opposite the 
riveter. 

The efficiency of this hammer depends upon the 
number, rather than the force, of the blows struck, 
and may be utilized for many other purposes besides 
riveting, such as hammering and calking. Similar 
hammers are also used for chiselling, and have revo- 
lutionized stone carving, taking the place of the chisel 
and mallet of the old-time carver. Machines for this 
purpose give very light but rapid strokes — as high as 
15,000 blows a ninute — so rapid indeed that the sound 
made is a continuous buzz in place of the rapid, inter- 
rupted tapping of the riveting hammer. The carved 
stone-work of the steel-frame buildings is often made 
with these tools after the roughly cut stone is in place 
on the building. 

There are great numbers of pneumatic tools having 
a rotary motion adapted to various kinds of boring 
and drilling machines, both for wood and metal work- 
ing. These are, of course, used in innumerable ways 
in building construction, although seen less frequently 
than such tools as the pneumatic riveter because their 
use is often confined to factories. 

The modern steel-frame structures, perhaps the most 
beautiful examples of which are represented by Ameri- 
can hotels and apartment houses, are frequently 
spoken of as "palaces." Save for the fact that they 
are not the residences of crowned heads, the term is not 
inappropriate. For many of them are quite as large, 
and far more magnificent in their appointments than 
vol. dc. — 12 [ iyy ] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

most of the European palaces. In the matter of com- 
forts and convenience the advantage lies entirely with 
the American structures. To be sure there are many 
European palaces in which an effort is made from time 
to time to keep up with the tide of progress by adding 
such improvements as modern elevators, and modern 
heating and lighting appliances. But at best these 
are only make-shifts — antique structures with new 
garnishings. And the American in his palatial resi- 
dence, with every convenience for his comfort provided 
by engineer and architect, may well smile at the crude 
dwellings with ancient armorial bearings — crude at 
best, from the standpoint of comfort and convenience 
— built before the days of steel-frames, steam heating, 
and applied electricity. 

SOME THOUGHT-PROVOCATIVE STATISTICS 

The luxury of equipment of modern dwellings is 
equalled — often surpassed, indeed — in the buildings 
used for business purposes, particularly in New York 
which has the distinction of having the highest office 
buildings as well as the highest -priced real estate in 
the world. The fact that the land on which a narrow, 
twenty-story skyscraper stands sometimes costs more 
than the building itself gives some conception of these 
values. The most notable example of this is the Flat- 
iron Building, the site for which cost $2,500,000. And 
yet this figure does not represent the acme of price per 
foot in the metropolis. This distinction goes to a 
little corner lot on Wall Street and Broadway, which 

[178] 



i ' : sv.: 

'" "I IM 
'«"»•„, 

J* *"'»■„ 
- »»• Hi I,. 

Ml I,, ,.. 

, " •»• Ml lit 

r " ■»• Hi Ml 

Ml HI |t| 

. , " m 111 in 

• •» IU !|! 

«T» III • • 

' III III !•: 



THE TOWER OF THE METROPOLITAN-LIFE BUILDING, NEW YORK, 

ILLUMINATED. 

The top of the lantern is seven hundred feet above the street. 



THE MODERN SKYSCRAPER 

sold for $600 per square foot — the highest price ever 
paid for real estate anywhere in the world. 

Thirty years ago a ten-story building represented 
about the limit of habitable structures. Ten years later 
there were buildings having twice that number of 
stories. To-day the fifty-story structure — the Metro- 
politan Life tower — is an accomplished fact. What 
is the limit to lofty construction? An answer to this 
question is found not in the matter of strength or weak- 
ness of the structures themselves, as Mr. O. F. Semsch 
who designed the steel work for the Singer tower has 
pointed out, but a clause in the Building Code, at 
least as regards the City of New York. 

The Singer tower, the dome of which stands 612 
feet above the sidewalk, measures only 65 feet on each 
side. Mr. Semsch finds that, even by keeping well 
within the restrictions of the Building Code, a building 
2,000 feet high might be erected with safety on a lot 
200 feet square. Such a building would have about 
125 stories, would weigh over 500,000 tons, and cost 
about $60,000,000. The engineering problem to be 
met in constructing such a building assumes propor- 
tions quite beyond the grasp of the layman even if 
stated in plain figures. Those of the Singer tower, which 
has only one-twentieth of the weight of the hypotheti- 
cal building in question, are sufficiently staggering. 

Thus, "the wind pressure at 30 pounds per square 
foot exercises a total overturning moment on the whole 
tower of 128,000 foot-tons. Although the total weight 
of the tower is 23,000 tons, the wind pressure would 
have a tendency to lift the windward side of the build- 

[i79] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

ing, the total uplift on a single column amounting, 
for maximum wind pressure, to 470 tons. To provide 
against this the columns are anchored to the caissons, 
and the margin of safety against lifting is in no case 
less than 50 tons to the column. The effect of the wind 
pressure on the leeward side of the building also affords 
some interesting figures. Thus, the total dead load 
at the foot of one of the leeward columns is 289.2 tons, 
which represents the weight of the steel work and ma- 
sonry. The live load, which includes furniture, fittings, 
and the maximum crowd of occupants, totals, at the 
foot of this column, 131. 6 tons. The downward pres- 
sure on the leeward side of the building due to wind 
pressure is 758.8 tons, and this, added to the dead and 
live loads, brings the total load on these columns up 
to 1,179.6 tons." 

The Singer Building is neither the tallest nor the 
largest office building in the world, this distinction 
being held, for the moment at least, by the Metro- 
politan Building in New York. The tower of this 
building is 700 feet high, and the total floor space of 
the building is over 25 acres. A close second for size 
is the City Investing Building, thirty-three stories 
high, with a total floor space of 670,000 square feet, 
accommodating 6,000 people. Both these figures are 
surpassed by the combined sections of the Terminal 
Building whose basements are occupied by the termi- 
nal stations of the Hudson Companies' tunnels. But 
since these sections are separated by a street, and are 
not under a single roof, they cannot be considered as 
a single building. 

[180] 



>^TSl 



»1 »«'!, ., 

nil-.- „ 

•U •' • lit 1 



Mil Hil|, 



it '' 



1 , n 






■- 



A GROUP OF SKYSCRAPERS ON LOWER BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 

The highest building near the center is the tower of the Singer Building. 
The next highest building, at the right, is the City Investing Building. 



THE MODERN SKYSCRAPER 

The question of the exclusion of light, rather than 
any insurmountable engineering problem, seems likely 
to limit the height of buildings in America, in the near 
future, as it does already in many European cities. 
Groups of tall buildings on narrow streets put the 
pavement in a constant state of gloom even on bright 
days. It is probable, therefore, that the height of 
the building on a street will be limited by the street's 
width, or the distance from the street at which the 
highest stories rise. 



[181] 



vin 

ARTIFICIAL STONE, OR CONCRETE 

THE Greeks and Romans were not the only 
ancient people who had learned to use some 
kind of cement as a substitute for rock in 
building. The Mexicans in the Western hemisphere 
are known to have used it extensively in some of their 
constructions. But none of these cements had exactly 
the composition of the modern Portland cements, whose 
superiority makes possible the wonderful present-day 
building operations. The endurance of the dome of 
the Pantheon through two thousand years would seem 
to disprove any contention that Roman concrete needed 
anything in the way of improvement. Yet it is un- 
doubtedly true that Portland cement is far superior to 
the Roman "puzzolana," as it is called, for most 
purposes. It has greater resistance to crushing, and 
is not affected to so great an extent by oxidation in a 
dry atmosphere. 

Through the action of volcanoes, Nature placed 
material for cement in the very dooryard of the Ro- 
mans. The volcanic dust found near the village of 
Pozzuoli, when added to lime could be transformed 
into a cement which would set under water, and be as 
enduring as rock itself. The Romans called this 

[182] 



ARTIFICIAL STONE, OR CONCRETE 

cement puzzuolani, but this has been shortened to 
puzzolana, as the modern name for any cement 
made of volcanic dust, or powdered burnt clay, mixed 
with powdered hydrates of lime. It is much lighter in 
weight than true Portland cement, and is of a light-lilac 
color, rather than the familiar bluish-gray of the modern 
cement. At the present time its use is limited to struc- 
tures that are exposed to a moist atmosphere, or those 
under water. 

The manufacture of Portland cement, which gets its 
name from its resemblance to the famous Portland build- 
ing-stone of England, began in the early years of the 
nineteenth century. It is produced by calcining a mixture 
of calcareous and argillaceous substances, and grinding 
the resulting clinker to extreme fineness. When this 
is thoroughly mixed with certain proportions of sand, 
gravel, or broken rock, and thoroughly moistened, it 
sets into an apparently homogeneous rock, of a quality 
superior to most building-stone, and less expensive. 
Its great flexibility in working, along with its other re- 
markable qualities, make it the favorite medium of 
modern construction. It can be cast in molds as bricks 
or building-stone, which may then be laid in mortar; or 
the molds can be so arranged that an entire wall, or 
even a building, may be cast, the whole structure 
being as homogeneous as if hewn from solid rock. 
If steel rods are laid in the concrete during the course 
of construction — making "reinforced concrete," to 
which we shall refer a little later — the resulting build- 
ing will be stronger and more enduring than if hewn 
out of granite itself. 

[183] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 



CONCRETE BLOCKS 

Since the dawn of history, the most popular form of 
building material which could claim any great degree 
of permanency, has been in the form of small units of 
uniform size, such as bricks. The reason for this is 
obvious. The convenience in handling such units, and 
the varied forms of structures that could be fashioned 
with them without very great difficulty, insured such 
popularity. The cheapness of bricks, and the fact 
that clay for making them is found in practically 
every part of the world, has added to this popularity. 
Until some substance could be found that competed 
in all these good qualities, and could show some supe- 
rior ones, the preeminence of brick as building material 
remained unassailed. It was not until the closing 
years of the nineteenth century that any substance 
made a permanent bid for this position — not until 
the concrete block was perfected, that the position of 
the brick was seriously jeopardized. 

First of all, the predominating advantage of price 
had to be met. But there is another item besides the 
one of actual manufacture that has to be reckoned with 
in brick-walled structures. This is the cost of con- 
struction. The smaller the units the greater the cost 
of building them into a permanent structure. And 
here the concrete block scored a point over brick. 
There is a limit to the size at which the brick can be 
made economically. There is practically no such limit 

[i8 4 ] 



ARTIFICIAL STONE, OR CONCRETE 

to the concrete block. Besides this, the concrete 
block is stronger and more resistant to moisture, at- 
mospheric conditions, and fire. These qualities, to- 
gether with the flexibility of concrete as a working 
medium, give concrete blocks the position they now 
hold as building material. 

Although the concrete block, when finished, has 
such remarkable qualities, there is nothing complex 
or extraordinary in the process of its manufacture. 
Any person with reasonable intelligence, a little knowl- 
edge, and sufficient industry to see that the com- 
ponent materials are well mixed, can make a first class 
article of concrete. The exact proportions of the 
materials are less essential than the thorough mixing 
of them. Thus, one part Portland cement, two parts of 
sand, and four parts of gravel, or broken rock, when 
thoroughly mixed with water, will set into a good 
concrete block; the more thorough the mixing the better 
the block. The exact amount of the hard sub- 
stances, and the amount of water used, may be varied 
within wide limits; but there is no deviation from the 
cardinal rule of thorough mixing. " Ultimate success 
with any mixture," says one writer, "can only be ob- 
tained by the entire coating of every grain of sand 
with cement, and every piece of stone or gravel with 

sand-cement mortar Only by this method 

can voids be eliminated and the greatest strength ob- 
tained. There are, however, other advantages resulting 
from an absence of porosity. The permeability of a 
concrete block is greatly reduced by added density, and 
with sufficient attention to this matter the question 

[18s] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

of waterproofing is, at least in a measure, solved. 
Efflorescence is also practically overcome by making 
really dense and reasonably impervious blocks." 

Generally speaking, the greater the proportion of 
Portland cement used, the less will be the porosity 
of the concrete block. For it is the minute particles 
of the finely powdered cement that act in filling up 
the voids between the larger particles in the aggregate. 
To get a clear idea as to the amount of space left be- 
tween the individual particles in a heap of gravel 
whose units approach the spherical in shape, a pile of 
perfectly spherical cannon-balls of the same size may 
be considered. In such a pile the spaces left amount 
to some twenty-six per cent, of the entire mass. If 
these spaces were fitted with smaller balls just large 
enough to touch snugly all points of contact without 
displacing the larger balls, the voids would be reduced 
to about twenty per cent. Smaller and smaller balls 
could be added (theoretically, at least) until all the 
air spaces had been filled to such an extent that 
the mass would be impermeable to water. To do 
this the smallest particles would necessarily be of a 
fineness corresponding to those of an "impalpable" 
powder. 

In comparing this mass of perfectly spherical balls to 
the substances composing the mass of concrete, the 
Portiand cement represents the finest particles, and 
the ones that give the mass its adhesive quality; the 
intermediate- sized balls are represented by the sand; 
and the largest balls by the particles of gravel or crushed 
stone. The comparison holds only in the matter of 

[186] 



ARTIFICIAL STONE, OR CONCRETE 

the filled air-spaces, however, for even the finest shot 
has none of the adhesive qualities of the particles 
of cement. 

MIXING THE MATERIALS 

Since thorough mixing is so essential in making 
blocks, or in building with concrete on a large scale, 
steam-driven mixers are used which produce an enor- 
mous quantity of concrete of uniform consistency, 
although hand-mixing is still in general use in any but 
the largest operations. Machine-mixed concrete is 
usually of greater strength than that made by hand, 
and is likely to be more uniform in color, as the amount 
of water used in each batch can be better regulated. 
The exact shade of the finished block, when the pro- 
portions of the solid substances are the same, depends 
to a great extent upon the amount of water used. 

Mixing by hand is usually done on a board platform. 
The sand to be used is spread upon the platform and 
the dry cement spread over this, the substances being 
mixed thoroughly by turning with a shovel before 
being moistened. Water is then sprayed upon the 
mixture, which is stirred constantly. When thor- 
oughly moistened, the gravel or broken stone is added, 
the mass turned repeatedly, until ready for the block 
molds. 

Mechanical mixers are made in a variety of shapes 
and on many different principles. Some of the larger 
ones in use on extensive building operations are con- 
tinuous producers, a steady stream of concrete emerg- 
ing from one end of the machine, while the cement, 

[187] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

sand, gravel, and water are poured continuously into 
the feeding-end in the required proportions. Owing 
to the difficulty in measuring the various substances 
accurately, many builders prefer " batch-mixers," 
which have to be rilled and emptied successively. The 
general principle upon which all these machines work 
is that of the time-honored churn, the contents of which 
are jostled about in every direction. Some of the mixers 
are barrel- shaped, having fixed paddles in the interior 
which stir the contents thoroughly when the surround- 
ing cylinder is revolved. Others are box-shaped, 
the angles of the box performing the same functions 
as the paddles when the machine is rotated. Still 
others are in the shape of a long trough with a longi- 
tudinal shaft upon which are placed several propeller- 
like blades running through the center. Material 
thrown into the upper end of this machine is thoroughly 
mixed by the time it reaches the other end, so that 
they are adapted for use as continuous, or batch- 
machines, as the operator may prefer. A very simple 
type of mixer is one in which the action of gravity is 
utilized. This is in the form of an upright tube, or 
box, along the inner surface of which projecting ob- 
structions are placed at intervals. The material is 
thrown in at the top and, striking against the obstruc- 
tions as it descends, is jostled about until it emerges 
from the lower end of the tube mixed perfectly. 

With all these machines great difficulty lies in feed- 
ing them with the various materials in the correct 
proportions. Mechanical measurers have been per- 
fected that do this accurately and satisfactorily, but 

[188] 



ARTIFICIAL STONE, OR CONCRETE 

such machines are too expensive for most builders. 
The usual method of feeding the mixers is by shoveling 
— obviously one that is likely to be very inaccurate. 
Some ingenious contractors, however, find a way of 
using shovels as very accurate measurers. If the mix- 
ture they wish to use consists of one part cement, two 
parts sand, and three parts gravel, they place three 
shovelers at the gravel pile, two at the sand pile, and 
one at the cement pile, each supplied with shovels of 
exactly the same size, so made that they will take up 
practically the same amount of material at each scoop 
of an average workman. By having these six men 
shovel in unison they are able to supply the mixing 
machine with the materials in proportions accurate 
enough for all practical purposes. 

MOLDING THE BLOCKS 

For molding the concrete into blocks, mixtures of 
three consistencies are used, known as dry, medium, 
and wet mixtures respectively. The dry mixture is 
not dry in the strict sense, but is of a consistency too 
stiff to be poured; the wet is thin and pours readily; 
while the medium is intermediate between the two. 
The molds used may be of any desired size or shape, 
and are sometimes made of sand in much the same 
manner as molds for iron-casting. More frequently 
they are made of iron or wood, so arranged that the 
sides are jointed to facilitate the removal of the block 
when it has set. 

When a dry mixture is used, this is shoveled into 

[189] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

the mold and tamped into place as the mold is filling. 
A block made in this way sets quickly and may be 
removed from the mold in a short time, so that fewer 
duplicate molds are required than when a mixture 
containing more moisture is used. 

When blocks are made by " pressing/' a medium 
mixture is used, wet enough so that the water flushes 
to the surface when slight pressure is applied. This 
is poured into the molds and pressure applied over 
the entire surface, all portions of the block being com- 
pressed equally at the same time. The advocates of 
this method claim for it the advantage of producing 
blocks of more uniform density than by other methods. 

When blocks are made by the "pouring method, " 
the cement is reduced to a fluid state, poured into the 
molds, and allowed to set. As the setting requires 
some little time there is a gradual settling to the bot- 
tom of the heavier particles of the mixture, so that the 
block will not be of uniform density throughout. 
Another, and more serious objection to this method 
from the manufacturer's point of view, is the fact that 
so many more molds are required, owing to the slow 
process of setting. At the same time the great flexi- 
bility of the wet medium makes it a favorite one for 
certain purposes, while the fact that an excess of water 
has been used makes it unnecessary to pass the blocks 
through the subsequent "curing" process, to which 
blocks made by the dry process must be subjected if 
they are to be of first-class quality. For strength and 
durability can only be secured by the presence of suffi- 
cient water to produce the chemical reactions resulting 

[190] 



ARTIFICIAL STONE, OR CONCRETE 

in the crystallization of the silicates of aluminum and 
lime. 

This curing process is the most tedious of all those 
involved in concrete-block construction, and un- 
fortunately, the one that is most likely to be slighted. 
Blocks made by the dry process must be cured by 
repeated sprayings with water for a period of from ten 
to twenty days, during which time they should not 
be allowed to become dry; and blocks made of medium 
concrete require a proportionate time for the curing. 
For the chemical process which results in fine concrete 
is a slow one, unless hurried by heating, or some other 
expensive process. It is a strong temptation to the 
block-maker, therefore, when his customers are chafing 
at what must seem needless delay, to curtail the curing 
process. Blocks so slighted may have every appear- 
ance of being first class, and only the crumblings 
wrought by the atmosphere a few years later reveal the 
folly of the block-maker. Folly, I say, as well as cul- 
pable negligence, since it is this and similar short- 
sighted actions on the part of the concrete-block maker 
in the past that have shaken the confidence of builders, 
and retarded the general introduction of concrete 
blocks as building material. Had honesty in the use 
of material, and care in the process of block manu- 
facture been exercised in the past, the concrete -block 
industry would long since have assumed the enormous 
proportions that the usefulness of this material merits. 
It is just now coming into its own, through the efforts 
of manufacturers who have proved their claim to 
honesty. 

[191] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

Makers of furniture discovered, centuries ago, the 
art of veneering — a process of facing a piece of fur- 
niture made of cheap wood with a thin covering of 
expensive wood, so that the finished piece would have 
every appearance of a piece made throughout of the 
expensive wood. A similar process is used by con- 
crete-block makers, of facing their blocks made of 
coarse, porous material, with an outer layer of fine, 
damp-proof concrete, colored "to suit the taste." 
The difference between this facing of concrete blocks, 
and veneered wood, lies in the fact that the facing of 
the concrete block becomes an integral part of the 
block itself, and is not simply a part fastened on by 
a different medium, such as the glue that holds the veneer 
to the wood beneath. Neither is it necessary that the 
material used in the body of the block be inferior in 
the essential qualities of strength and durability, but 
only in cost, appearance, and permeability, all of 
which may be corrected by the facing. A concrete 
made with a relatively low percentage of cement and 
a high percentage of sand and broken rock may be 
made strong enough and durable enough for even the 
most exacting purposes. It will lack the beauty and 
the moisture-resisting qualities of the finer article, 
but will have an enormous advantage in cheapness. 
In most places where concrete is used, the artistic 
appearance, and porosity, need not be considered; 
but in such positions as the fronts of buildings both 
these qualities are essential. To make the entire 
thickness of the block of high-percentage mixture ("fat 
mixtures," they are called), where special grades of 

[192] 



ARTIFICIAL STONE, OR CONCRETE 

sand, and expensive coloring-matter, as well as ex- 
pensive cement, are used, would make the cost pro- 
hibitory. But by " facing" his block, the manufacturer 
is able to produce, without sacrificing quality, an article 
at a nominal cost, which has a beautiful appearance, 
and a dense and impervious surface. 

Sometimes a coating of plaster is laid over the fin- 
ished cement surface, just as plaster is applied over 
bricks or inside walls. But such troweled surfaces 
have a tendency to crack and disintegrate, and are 
distinctly inferior to faced concrete blocks, when the 
outer surface is molded at the same time, and is of 
similar material to the body of the block itself. The 
mixture for the facing is made at the same time as that 
for the body. If the bottom of the mold is to repre- 
sent the face of the block a layer of the facing material 
is first placed in the mold and the coarser mixture 
added after. It is a common practice among the 
manufacturers to make the facing mixture a little 
dryer than that used in the body; but by capillary 
attraction the moisture of the block becomes evenly 
distributed throughout, and the concrete sets into a 
block quite as homogeneous as if a single mixture 
were used. 

UTILITY AND BEAUTY 

The advantage of such a block over brick or stone 
is obvious. A material that can be made into any 
size or shape, and of any color, which sets into a sub- 
stance more resistant and enduring than most rock, at 
vol. ix.— 13 [193] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

a cost considerably less than any permanent material 
furnished by Nature, does not have to go begging for 
advocates and champions in this practical age. Nor 
will its future in the artistic world be questioned by 
anyone who has seen some of the fine examples of 
concrete-block architecture that have been erected 
in recent years. One of the best examples is the 
Royal Bank of Canada in Havana, Cuba. This build- 
ing is situated on one of the narrow streets of the Cuban 
metropolis, surrounded by the substantial but unat- 
tractive buildings scattered everywhere throughout 
Spanish America. Few people indeed suspect that 
this stately building, whose massive blocks seem to 
typify sturdy England, is not made of blocks of hewn 
stone. Yet its fluted columns at either side of the 
great arched entrance, its decorative cornice, and 
every pleasing artistic bit from foundation to roof 
have been cast of concrete in molds made of sand. 

One of the greatest advantages that concrete-block 
construction has over every other form of masonry 
lies in the fact that it is so eminently adapted to " hol- 
low-wall " construction, without sacrifice of strength 
or space, and with great saving of material. For this 
purpose the blocks are made hollow in their vertical 
diameter. The particular shape of this hollow space 
with its surrounding shell of concrete is the basis of 
many patents, and much ingenuity has been expended 
in producing easily workable designs which can be 
laid up quickly into walls. It is necessary that the 
inner and outer surfaces of such blocks shall form flat 
walls; but there seems to be no limit to the skeleton 

[i94] 



ARTIFICIAL STONE, OR CONCRETE 

work of the interior of the blocks, so arranged that the 
walls will hold together, leaving an intervening air 
space. At the necessary points of contact some of 
these blocks are made with a layer of waterproof 
composition, such as a mixture of cement, sand, and 
hydrated lime, which is inserted during the process of 
making the block in the same manner as the process 
of facing. Buildings constructed of this form of block 
will be strong as well as damp-proof. 

REINFORCED CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION 

We have seen that concrete, made into blocks and 
laid up as the walls of buildings, forms an ideal fire- 
proof material. Without some strengthening material, 
however, such as a steel frame, it is open to the same 
objections as stone or bricks for very high structures; 
but the modern skyscraper is an example of what can 
be done with it in combination. This same sky- 
scraper, if built first of a skeleton of steel girders, and 
filled in with brick or stone afterward, has many de- 
fects. The steel in the structure has a different rate 
of expansion from that of the walls, causing collapses 
and catastrophes in conflagrations. For this reason 
the fireproof skyscraper is almost as much feared by 
firemen when its contents are burning as the older 
forms of building, although the walls cannot actually 
be burned. 

But perhaps the greatest enemy of the steel-frame 
building is rust. Unprotected steel is a very perish- 
able material, as building materials go. And while, 

[195] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

in the course of construction, many precautions are 
taken to see that this steel frame is protected at every 
point, there is always a possibility that some joint 
or crevice will be overlooked and left exposed. Even 
the smallest crack that would admit moisture might, 
in time, be the undoing of the strongest steel structure, 
since the strength of the skyscraper lies in its steel 
frame. This possibility, among other things, has made 
the builder look to other materials as possible sub- 
stitutes for steel; or for a permanent preservative that 
might be applied to the surface of the metal. 

Paint is a very good preservative, although in order 
to give perfect protection it must be applied to the 
steel at comparatively frequent intervals. This is 
perfectly practical in such structures as bridges where 
the metal is exposed, but is out of the question in 
steel-frame buildings. And so the constructor of 
such a building must have a haunting fear that his 
most dreaded enemy may be gnawing insidiously into 
the very vitals of his structure, without giving him a 
chance to protect himself, or to detect the attack. 

In looking about for some permanent protective 
for steel, it was discovered, curiously enough, that 
moistened Portland cement, or "fat" concrete, answered 
this purpose almost perfectly. Steel embedded in 
concrete will outlast the centuries. What could be 
more natural, or more ideal, therefore, than to combine 
these two substances as building materials? The 
experiment was tried, and the era of "reinforced con- 
crete," or "concrete steel," as some enthusiasts call it, 
was inaugurated — an era which seems likely to prove 

[196] 



ARTIFICIAL STONE, OR CONCRETE 

the greatest the world has ever seen. For reinforced- 
concrete structures have now proved their claim to 
permanency against the attacks of cyclones, fires, and 
earthquakes, and have stood the ordeal better than any 
other class of buildings ever constructed. 

Reinforced concrete seems to have been first used 
extensively by a French gardener named Joseph Monier, 
who had made great pots for shrubs of metal and con- 
crete as early as 1867. Another Frenchman, and an 
Englishman, had made some experiments and demon- 
strations with the same material a few years earlier, 
but had turned their discoveries to little practical 
account. Monier patented his system, and it came 
into use quite extensively for making floors, tanks, 
ponds, and such simple structures; but it was a full 
quarter of a century before the subject of reinforcing 
had been studied sufficiently to be thoroughly under- 
stood, with guiding principles based on scientific 
deductions, in place of the mere rule of thumb used 
by Monier and the early builders. 

ADVANTAGES OF REINFORCED CONCRETE 

The first advantage of reinforced concrete as a build- 
ing material that appeals to an American is its fire- 
resisting quality. The great Baltimore fire demon- 
strated that even where the heat was very intense the 
concrete was only affected to a maximum depth of 
three-quarters of an inch. Steel rods buried to a depth 
of one inch in concrete seemed to be protected per- 
fectly. Even the sudden cooling by the streams of 

[i97] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

water caused very little disintegration, although such 
cooling is disastrous to unprotected steel work, or plain 
concrete. For concrete is a poor conductor of heat, 
and the rate of expansion of iron and concrete under 
the action of heat is practically the same. As a re- 
sult, reinforced-concrete buildings are habitable almost 
immediately after a conflagration. During the con- 
flagration the temperature of rooms adjoining those 
actually in flame is usually low enough for the firemen 
to work in without inconvenience or danger. The 
exalted opinion of reinforced-concrete buildings held 
by the professional fire-fighter is a significant tribute 
to this kind of building material. 

Many interesting experiments have been made to 
test the protection afforded metal when embedded in 
concrete. These all seem to show that such protec- 
tion is all but absolute; and this has been confirmed 
by a discovery, made by Von Empergner, of rods that 
had been embedded in concrete under water for some 
four hundred years and showed no signs of rust. 

In embedding the rods no special precaution is 
necessary for their preservation save that of making 
certain that every portion is surrounded by the concrete. 
Even if the iron is somewhat rusty no harm seems to 
come from it. Indeed a little rust appears to aid rather 
than interfere with the preserving. "It is sometimes 
stated," says Marsh, "that the metal must be thor- 
oughly clean before being embedded in the concrete, 
but this does not appear to be borne out by facts. In 
some tests made to elucidate this point, the curious 
fact presented itself that not only does rusty iron be- 

[i 9 8] 



ARTIFICIAL STONE, OR CONCRETE 

come clean when embedded in concrete, but that it be- 
comes more effectively protected against oxidation 
than clean iron which has been similarly treated. A 
rusty nail and a clean nail were both embedded 
in the same concrete block and left for over three 
years; on being taken out the rusted nail had become 
free from rust. Both nails, together with a new nail, 
were then placed in water; the new nail rapidly be- 
came rusted. The nail which was rusty when first 
embedded in the concrete block showed no signs of 
rust a month after being placed in the water, except 
at one place, where it had been scraped with a pen- 
knife before being immersed ; the other nail, after re- 
sisting the action of the water for a few days, showed 
signs of rusting, which increased with time." 

Very early in the history of the development of re- 
inforced concrete experimenters considered the possi- 
bility of utilizing this material in place of iron for the 
drainage pipes and water-supply systems of buildings. 
Ordinary concrete, made with a high percentage of 
the coarser materials, such as gravel or broken rock, 
does not resist penetration by water under high pressure 
sufficiently for this purpose. But by using a higher 
percentage of cement and fine sand, the concrete 
becomes sufficiently resistant to penetration for all 
ordinary purposes; and by adding a little soft soap 
and alum to such concrete it can be made abso- 
lutely impermeable without affecting its strength. 
The proportions used for this purpose are about two 
pounds of soap and twelve pounds of alum to every 
cubic yard of concrete mortar. This may be used as 

[i99] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

a thin facing-layer on ordinary concrete, as even such 
thin layers are impermeable, and are not affected by run- 
ning water. A system of conduits made of this mate- 
rial has advantages over one made of iron aside from 
that of permanency, one feature being the avoidance 
of nodules commonly formed in iron pipes. 

In 1886 the city of Grenoble, France, laid about a 
hundred yards of reinforced-concrete water-pipes in 
the regular system of water- works. Fifteen years 
later an examination of these pipes was made. 

"The pipes have at all times resisted, and still resist, 
the normal pressure of 80 ft. head of water," says the 
official report. "The length of each section of pipe 
is 6 ft. 3 in., its thickness, if in., and its internal 
diameter, 12 in. 

"The metal skeleton of these pipes is formed by 
thirty longitudinal rods i in. diameter and by an inter- 
nal 5-32 in. spiral wire, also an external J in. spiral 
wire. 

"The sections of pipes weigh 88 lbs. each. They 
are connected together with reinforced-concrete rings. 

"On February 2, 1901, a length of 16 ft. of these 
pipes was raised. Two of the joint rings were broken 
so as to free two lengths of pipe which had been lying 
under three feet of ballast. 

"A close examination of these pieces established the 
following facts : — 

"1. The irreproachable state of preservation of the 
pipes, in which there was found a slight calcareous 
deposit about 1-16 in. thick. They did no show the 
least fissure, either internally or externally. 

[200] 



ARTIFICIAL STONE, OR CONCRETE 

"2. There existed no trace of oxidation from the 
metal. The binding-in wire which connected the longi- 
tudinal rods was absolutely free from oxidation. 

"3. The adherence between the metal and the cement 
concrete constituting the body of the pipe was such 
that, despite the thinness of the concrete (if in.), they 
could only be separated by heavy blows from a sledge- 
hammer. 

"4. When struck with the hammer, these pipes 
evinced remarkable sonority, such as might be ob- 
tained from a sound cast-iron pipe. 

"5. The detached fragments of the cement concrete 
showed very sharp angles. 

"6. The Water Committee of the City Council 
declared that this line of pipes had required no repairs 
since it was set in place in 1886." 

From these, and similar exhaustive tests, it appears 
that reinforced-concrete pipes are ideal for drainage 
purposes, and are likely to replace iron ones in many 
places in structures where the pipes are built into the 
walls. In Thomas Edison's " one-piece concrete 
house" most of the piping of all kinds is of concrete. 
This material should not, however, be used for hot- 
water conveyors. 

STRENGTH AND DURABILITY OF CONCRETE 

Frameworks of steel or iron are lighter than those 
made of reinforced concrete for supporting the same 
load. This greater weight of the concrete is an ad- 
vantage in most places, but not so wherever long spans 
are required, such as in bridges. For short bridges, 

[201] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

however, it may be used in something the same man- 
ner as is steel, although the strains are arranged so 
as to be taken up differently. The "girders" of such 
bridges of the more recent types, seem scarcely larger 
than those used in many of the older types of iron 
bridges; while the abutments and retaining walls 
are much lighter than those built of masonry. It is 
evident that if, in this infant stage of reinforced con- 
crete, such remarkable structures can be erected, 
there is little that may not be accomplished with it 
architecturally in the future. 

The few reinforced-concrete buildings in and about 
San Francisco at the time of the earthquake demon- 
strated conclusively that this material resisted shock 
better than any other combination of materials used in 
construction. The effect of the shocks upon one 
building in the course of construction, which was being 
built of reinforced concrete in every part except the 
outer walls, which the building authorities had insisted 
upon having made of brick, was peculiarly instruct- 
ive. The inner walls and supports were not affected, 
while the exterior brick walls were so badly cracked 
that they had to be replaced. Another striking 
demonstration was the effect of the shocks upon the 
Museum building of Leland Stanford University at 
Palo Alto, where the earthquake was very severe. 
The central portion of this building was built of rein- 
forced concrete, while the two side wings were of brick, 
with brickwork floors. These two side wings w r ere des- 
troyed, while the concrete central portion of the build- 
ing sustained only a few small cracks in the interior. 

[ 202 ] 



ARTIFICIAL STONE, OR CONCRETE 

These practical demonstrations of the resistance of 
concrete to shock only served to confirm the experi- 
ments of engineers made on a small scale but along 
similar lines. One of these experiments, undertaken 
by some French railway engineers, was made by drop- 
ping weights from a given height upon reinforced- 
concrete floors, and comparing the vibrations produced 
with the effects upon floors made of iron and brick. 
The floors in each instance were built with the same 
bearing, and calculated to sustain the same load. 
When a weight of one hundred and twelve pounds 
was dropped from a height of six and one-half feet 
upon the brick floor, vibrations of five-sixteenths of 
an inch amplitude, lasting two seconds, were produced. 
But a weight twice as heavy, falling twice the distance 
upon the concrete floor, caused vibrations of only 
one-sixteenth of an inch amplitude, lasting only five- 
sevenths of a second. This shows conclusively that 
for resisting the shocks of locomotives passing over 
bridges, or the pounding of projectiles in warfare, 
reinforced concrete is superior to masonry. In prac- 
tice it is rapidly replacing it. 

In view of the fact that concrete is so relatively 
brittle a material it was thought for a time that rein- 
forced-concrete buildings, and structures subjected 
to severe strains, might collapse suddenly when over- 
loaded, without giving any warning such as is given 
by steel-frame buildings. Exhaustive experiments 
have proved, however, that such is not the case; that 
there is bending and sagging in reinforced-concrete 
bars before the final breaking. A beam calculated to 

[203] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

support a load of four tons was loaded with thirty-four 
tons of iron rails as an experiment by a French engineer. 
Under this load four cracks appeared, and there was a 
slight sagging at the center. As the beam did not break, 
the load of rails was left in place. At the end of eight 
years no more cracks had appeared ; and at last accounts 
the beam was still supporting its load. 

THE REINFORCING SKELETON OF METAL 

When it comes to determining the exact form of 
metal reinforcement best calculated to strengthen con- 
crete, it is evident, from the numerous systems which 
have been evolved, that no single one is preeminently 
superior, but that there are a great number which are 
perfectly practical. Almost every engineer seems to 
have evolved a system of his own, more or less care- 
fully studied out along practical, scientific lines. Some 
of these are simply longitudinal and transverse rods of 
the simplest arrangement, while others are complicated 
networks of steel bars and wires. It is the aim of 
every system to use the smallest possible amount of 
metal to obtain a given strength; and the amazing 
thing to the layman is how little metal is required for 
this purpose, where every strain, even of the smallest 
wires, is accurately calculated, and placed to the best 
advantage. Since the greatest strength of concrete 
lies in resisting compression, it is obvious that the re- 
inforcement of upright columns require less metal 
strengthening than horizontal ones, and must have 
this reinforcement differently placed. Everything 

[204] 



ARTIFICIAL STONE, OR CONCRETE 

else being equal, each angle requires a different 
amount of metal, differently placed, to secure the 
same resistance; but this is an engineering problem 
too complicated to be considered here at length. 

As the metal work is all completely buried in the 
cement in the finished structure, there is no way of deter- 
mining by casual observation what form of reinforce- 
ment may have been used in any particular building. 
The exposed surfaces appear the same whether the 
reinforcement is a network of fine wires, or heavy 
"I" beams, and if properly constructed there is no 
difference in strength and durability. Some idea of how 
certain forms of reinforcement would look if concrete 
were transparent may be had from the appearance of 
"wire-glass," — "reinforced glass" it could be called 
appropriately — which has become so popular in recent 
years. In this the mesh of wire can be seen embedded 
in the glass, the percentage of space occupied by the 
wire as compared with the amount of glass being very 
small. This same kind of reinforcement is used ex- 
tensively in certain kinds of reinforced-concrete con- 
struction, but the size of the wire, and the resulting 
meshes are larger, although the proportions are not 
unlike those in wire-glass. 

A MODERN BUILDING 

Since there are so many different ways of using the 
reinforcement in concrete construction, perhaps a bet- 
ter way to gain a fairly clear idea of the subject, the 
size of the metal rods used, and the actual process of 

[205] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

constructing a building, would be to study in detail 
the construction of one building, rather than the casual 
observation of all the different systems. For even 
meager descriptions of each of the different systems in 
use would more than fill an entire volume the size of 
this one. A typical structure for this purpose would 
be one of the new hotels recently constructed at Atlantic 
City, such as the Traymore, erected in the early 
months of 1907. A striking thing in the construction 
of this building, in which very little wood is found in 
the finished structure, is the fact that it was built very 
largely by skilled carpenters working at their trade. 
There is nothing surprising in this to anyone familiar 
with the process of reinforced-concrete construction. 
But what carpenter a quarter of a century ago would 
have believed that the introduction of fireproof stone 
and steel buildings would have increased the demand 
for members of his craft? It is simply another in- 
stance showing how difficult it is for anyone to visu- 
alize the effect that any innovation in the field of labor 
will have upon the workmen themselves. 

It is a fact, of course, that any innovation in any 
field of industry which is a sufficient departure from 
existing methods of procedure in that field, must inev- 
itably affect certain classes of workmen very materially. 
The increase in number of new classes of workmen 
must cause a corresponding decline in the numbers 
of the older class who can find work; and if the inno- 
vation be completely revolutionary in character the 
workmen of the older method must eventually become 
extinct. Many such revolutions have taken place in 

[206] 




HOW THE WORLD BELOW LOOKS FROM A SKYSCRAPER. 

A view of Broadway from the tower of the Singer Building, New York. 



ARTIFICIAL STONE, OR CONCRETE 

the industrial world, and while most of them have 
been effected so gradually that they have caused com- 
paratively little hardship to the skilled workmen, 
it has happened more than once that some have been 
so sudden in their results, owing to the marked superior- 
ity of the new methods, that much suffering has been 
caused among certain classes of workmen. In our 
own generation a most striking example of this is shown 
in the field of wood-engraving. The introduction of 
photographic methods, superior, quicker, and far less 
expensive than hand methods, captured the world 
so quickly that thousands of skilled wood-engravers 
were thrown out of employment permanently. In 
this particular instance great hardship was caused to 
a certain class for the benefit of the world at large. 

It is the possibility of this sort of thing that causes 
many classes of skilled workmen to oppose threatening 
innovations. A century ago such new methods were 
combated violently in many instances. This was at 
the beginning of the age of machinery, when it ap- 
peared to many that manual labor, particularly skilled 
labor, was doomed. The inventors of the cotton 
gin and the power-loom, for example, had literally 
to fight their way through armed mobs to place their 
machines in the factories. Yet the members of the 
mobs found, after they had lost their bloody contests, 
that the very machines they had opposed gave them 
more work and better pay than the older systems they 
had fought to uphold. These are but two examples, 
out of hundreds that could be cited as showing how 
little anyone can predict with certainty just what effect 

[207] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

upon manual labor the introduction of any labor-saving 
machine may have. 

The introduction of steel-frame construction menaced 
the business of the carpenters. But steel-framed build- 
ings are comparatively few. A more serious menace 
seemed to be the introduction of concrete construction, 
which was not confined to towering city skyscrapers, 
but became popular in the construction of smaller 
buildings of all kinds. Yet, curiously enough, this 
very form of construction is dependent upon the work 
of the carpenter, as we shall see from the description 
of the construction of the Traymore Hotel, referred to 
a moment ago. 

This building, nine stories high, covering a space 
one hundred and twenty-two feet long by seventy-six 
deep, was erected and completed exteriorly in exactly 
three months and five days. The nine stories do not 
include a massive dome, in which there are three addi- 
tional stories. The foundation for the concrete was 
made of piles driven down below the water level with 
their caps bedded in concrete. The supporting pil- 
lars of reinforced concrete varied in size from square 
columns twenty-four inches, and octagonal ones with 
minimum diameters of twenty-eight inches, at the 
lower story, to columns ten inches in diameter in the 
upper story. These were reinforced with eight f -inch 
steel rods for each column, placed in the angles and in 
the middles of the square columns, and in the middles 
of the flat surfaces in the octagonal ones. So that the 
actual surface of steel in the larger columns was only 
a little over one one-hundredth of the concrete surface. 

[208] 



ARTIFICIAL STONE, OR CONCRETE 

These steel rods in the square columns were connected 
horizontally by ties one and a half by three inches, 
placed ten inches apart, while those in the octagonal 
columns were wound spirally with quarter-inch wire 
rods, having a pitch of three inches. "The wall col- 
umns are virtually rectangular piers," says the Scien- 
tific American, "and, like the interior columns, their 
dimensions increase from the top downward until 
in the basement a maximum of twenty-six inches square 
is attained. Beams and girders are made in the stand- 
ard manner, reinforced with Kahn tension-rods (rods 
with projections at intervals) in the lower sides which 
project nearly through the supporting columns. Ad- 
ditional bars about six feet long, reversed so that their 
prongs point downward, extend through the columns, 
projecting equally on both sides, and are built into the 
upper portions of the beams and girders, thus bonding 
them and providing for cantilever strains at these 
supports. A framework of this size was considered 
necessary partly because of the wind pressure, the hotel 
being on the beach front. The building is propor- 
tioned for a wind pressure of thirty pounds per square 
foot of external vertical surface, and for live loads of 
seventy pounds per square foot on the ' exchange' 
and eight floors; all the other floors are proportioned 
for fifty pounds per square foot. The concrete is pro- 
portioned for a working load of five hundred pounds per 
square inch in compression, and the reinforcement bars 
are designed to take all tensile and shearing stress and 
have a maximum working load of sixteen thousand 
pounds per square inch. 

vol. ix. — 14 [ 209 ] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

"The structure was molded, all of the framework 
being formed in boxes. Carpenters formed about 
one-half of the building force, since so many molds 
were required to sustain the great weight of the mate- 
rial. Boxes for the rectangular columns were made of 
planking one and a quarter inches thick, carefully 
fitted together, and further secured by battens and set 
in place by hand. In arranging the system of molds 
the upper ends of the columns were notched to receive 
the boxes for the floor beams and girders, which were 
fitted into them, supported on the ends of the vertical 
boards and on transverse cleats nailed to both mem- 
bers. The ends of the girder boxes were thus set 
flush with the inner surfaces of the column boxes and, 
the joints being thoroughly nailed, were considered by 
the contractors tighter and more satisfactory than if 
made in any other manner. The girder boxes were 
simple rectangular troughs, made like the column 
boxes, and were supported at intervals between col- 
umns on vertical shores with their ends double knee- 
braced to transverse cleats on the bottom of the boxes. 

"The reinforcement bars for the columns were 
wired together in the iron-yard to make rigid frames 
with the bars in accurate relative positions, and were 
deposited as units in the column boxes and were care- 
fully wired into position. Concrete was wheeled on 
runways laid on the girder boxes and was dumped 
from the wheelbarrows into the boxes. Special care 
was taken to compact it and work it well around the 
reinforcement bars and eliminate all chance of empty 
space by constant tamping. In the column boxes 

[210] 



ARTIFICIAL STONE, OR CONCRETE 

long-handled spades or simply straight poles were 
used to work between the reinforcement bars. 

"In the girder boxes a thin layer of concrete was 
first spread on the bottom, and then the reinforcement 
bars were placed accurately on it and moved back 
and forth until thoroughly set in position, when the 
remainder of the concrete was filled in and carefully 
spaded around them. The concrete was leveled off 
with a straight-edge two inches above the tops of the 
tiles, making the floor slabs, the beams, girders, and 
columns monolithic and providing a continuous hori- 
zontal surface over the full area of the building, from 
out to out of the walls, about two inches below the 
top of the finished floor. After the concrete had set 
at least ten days, the boxes were stripped from the 
columns and girders, the timber was roughly cleaned 
and made up again for use in an upper story. The 
inner faces of the boxes were scraped clean, but not 
oiled or coated. 

"By this method but a small number of mechanical 
appliances were required. The concrete was com- 
posed of Portland cement and trap-rock of three- 
quarter-inch size. It was mixed in portable concrete- 
mixers and that used in the foundation and lower 
stories delivered to wheelbarrows to be trundled to 
the work. That for the remainder of the building 
was delivered from the mixer through a movable 
chute to a hoisting-bucket. This chute was seated on 
an inclined bed to which it was connected by a lever 
that could be operated to set the lower end of the chute 
over the concrete-bucket or to slide it back and up so 

[an] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

that the lower end cleared the bucket, and the latter 
could be hoisted or lowered past it. The concrete- 
mixer and tower were placed in the most central posi- 
tion available so as to minimize the wheeling-distance. 
Adjacent to it there was a hod elevator on which tiles 
and other material were carried. The hoist delivered 
the concrete to an elevated platform or chute, closed 
with a gate at the lower end, which was raised to dis- 
charge the concrete into the wheelbarrows below." 

The average rate of building on this hotel was one 
story to every six days, but there were both day and 
night shifts of men, so that the full twenty-four hours 
of each day were utilized. Despite this the operations 
were so relatively noiseless that there was little cause 
for complaint by people living in the vicinity. The 
suppression of sounds is an incidental but pleasing 
feature of this kind of construction. 



[21a] 




TIMES SQUARE AT NIGHT. 

The search-light is signaling election returns. The streaks of light ex- 
tending down Broadway and Seventh Avenue, respectively, represent 
the moving headlights of trolley cars, and show that the photograph is a 
time exposure. 



IX 

FURNITURE AND FURNISHINGS 

BY many writers on the subject it is held that 
all house furniture of Western Europe and 
America has a common ancestor in the 
feudal chest of the Middle Ages. For after the fall of 
the Western Empire in the fifth century, Europe seems 
to have forgotten the use of most articles of furniture 
except the chest, even such simple things as chairs 
not coming into general use until something like a 
century before Columbus' great discovery. 

For many hundreds of years the chest seems to have 
been the one characteristic piece of furniture of the 
movable type. It should not be inferred, however, that 
all chests were the simple trunk-like structures known 
by that name to-day, but rather that most of the simple 
pieces of furniture of that time partook of many char- 
acteristics of the chest. Chairs were not made with 
four legs as at present, but were small chests with high 
backs attached; settles were simply elongated chests 
with high backs and side-pieces; movable beds, when 
used at all, were long, wide chests. Most beds at that 
time were built into the wall and were not movable 
pieces. Such articles of furniture as wardrobes, side- 
boards, bureaus, etc., were unknown, and when finally 
developed were made first as modified chests. 

[213] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

When the feudal lord and members of his household 
moved from place to place most of their possessions 
were taken with them. In the chests belonging to 
the household were placed all the plate, jewels, orna- 
ments, and tapestries from the halls, to be carried away 
to the next resting-place. On arrival these chests were 
unpacked, the tapestry hung upon the walls, and cer- 
tain articles removed and placed about the rooms, 
the chests themselves being used as a storage place for 
clothing and valuables, and serving also in the capacity 
of couches and chairs. 

Even such simple conveniences as wardrobes for 
hanging clothing were not generally used, clothing of 
all kinds being kept in the chests. But the inconve- 
nience of digging out articles of clothing and valuables 
from the bottom of these great chests led finally to 
modifications, first in the smaller ones, and later in 
the larger, until finally drawers and "chests of drawers" 
were developed. The wardrobe, or clothes-press, was 
also a simple evolution of the chest made by standing 
it on end so that the clothing could be hung from pegs 
and not folded in the boxes except during the times of 
moving. 

The modern box-couch is perhaps the nearest direct 
lineal descendant of the old feudal chest. In fact, 
aside from the springs, it is practically identical in 
structure with its ancient prototype. 

Some of the first medieval chairs were made as small 
chests with backs and arm-pieces as temporary addi- 
tions, which could be removed when necessary. When 
these became fixed parts they were often built very 

[214] 



FURNITURE AND FURNISHINGS 

high at the back and with deep sides, not for ornamental 
purposes as at present but as protection against cold 
draughts. This was essential to comfort in medieval 
dwellings, whether castles or cottages, as their crude 
structure and ill-fitting doors and window-casings did 
not keep out gusts of wind. Even the draperies hung 
about the walls were, in many cases, used for protec- 
tion against the wandering gusts rather than for 
ornament. 

The tables of this period were relatively light struc- 
tures as compared to the heavy, high-backed settles 
and chairs. People did not draw their chairs up to the 
table, as at present, but had the table drawn up to 
the chairs, or long settles along the sides of the halls. 
In this manner only one side of the table was used by 
the diners leaving the other free for the serving-men. 
For convenience in handling, these tables were made 
of light material, and it was not until movable stools, 
benches, and finally chairs came into use, that the 
great dining-tables calculated to accommodate guests 
on all sides began to be constructed. 

But even the chairs used with these tables were 
ponderous structures with arms, and this type of 
heavy armchair remained in general use until hoop- 
skirts came into fashion. Women wearing this incon- 
venient form of apparel found it impossible to manage 
their skirts when they attempted to sit in these chairs. 
For their convenience, therefore, the arms were short- 
ened and cut away at the sides, and eventually the 
entire structure lightened until the modern chair was 
evolved. 

[215] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

This evolution did not take place, however, until the 
beginning of modern times. And yet, had the customs 
of the ancients been studied, models of chairs, prac- 
tically identical with modern ones, would have been 
found to have been used by certain nations at least 
two thousand years earlier. The Egyptians, for ex- 
ample, were accustomed to use light, portable chairs, 
very like our simple modern ones, and the Oriental 
nations seem to have continued using such chairs 
throughout the ages. Among these nations the chairs 
were carved and richly ornamented in practically the 
same manner as in modern times. 

The period of the Renaissance marks the beginning 
of the time of modern furniture, graceful styles and 
rich ornamentation being gradually introduced until 
the culminating period in the time of Louis XIV and 
XV in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The 
elegance of furniture in these periods, the graceful 
styles, and costly carvings are too well known to need 
description here. These styles are still copied, coming 
into fashion periodically, although the custom of such 
monarchs of fashioning some of their furniture in silver 
has never been popular even with the wealthy since 
their time. This silver furniture in the palaces of 
the last of the French Bourbons was eventually 
melted to defray expenses by the descendants of those 
monarchs. 

In recent years America has taken an important 
place in the construction of convenient and comfort- 
able articles of furniture. Even in Colonial times the 
rocking-chair had become popular, but this particular 

[216] 



FURNITURE AND FURNISHINGS 

article of furniture was purely an American invention, 
and has never come into general use in Europe. Chif- 
foniers, folding-beds, and refrigerators are also Amer- 
ican inventions, and the comfortable " hammock 
chairs" are simply adaptations of the primitive ham- 
mocks used by the South American aborigines and 
apparently unknown to civilization until the advent 
of the Spaniards. 

The use of machinery has revolutionized furniture- 
making quite as completely as it has any other single 
field of industry. The past half-century has seen cheap, 
substantial, and really very ornamental furniture placed 
within the reach even of the poorer classes, this being 
due entirely to the use of machinery. The most 
expensive furniture is still made in practically the same 
manner as it was two centuries ago, but furniture 
quite as useful, and frequently indistinguishable from 
it by the ordinary observer, is now turned out entirely 
by machinery, no handwork of any importance being 
employed at any stage of the process. Some of this 
machinery, such as saws, planing-machines, and 
boring-machines, are too familiar to need further 
description; certain less familiar mechanisms will be 
referred to more at length presently. 

THE PASSING OF HAND-CARVING 

For many centuries, even during the time of the 
Dark Ages, the carving of wood held a position as a 
fine art in Western Europe. For certain purposes 
such carving took the place of sculpture in stone and 

[217] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

was considered ideal for the richer furnishings of 
churches and palaces. With the improvement of 
furniture-making at the time of the Renaissance, this 
fine wood-carving increased in popularity, flat-relief 
work coming into favor as well as the more elaborate 
carvings which later characterized the artistic furni- 
ture period of France in the seventeenth century. 

With the invention of the steam-engine, however, 
and the introduction of machinery into all fields for- 
merly confined to hand-labor, efforts were made to find 
some substitute at least for the rougher hand-carving. 
With the powerful machines that came into use, the 
softer woods could be pressed or punched out into 
rough, decorative patterns, produced so inexpensively 
that even the cheaper classes of furniture could be 
made with decorations imitating in a rough manner 
the art of the wood-carver. 

Such rough pressed work, however, was such a 
shoddy imitation that it did not compete to any extent 
with the better-class work of the hand-carver. The 
products of the hand-tool were still in demand as much 
as ever in fine furniture, despite the fact that ornate, 
machine-made, cheap furniture was flooding the market. 

But meanwhile the mechanic was turning his atten- 
tion to perfecting mechanical devices for working in 
wood, and very shortly a machine was invented with 
which patterns could be gouged out mechanically in 
rough imitation of the wood-carvers' hand-work. 
Those machines were of various patterns, but a very 
common type was that of a whirling chisel which could 
be guided up and down, or in any direction laterally, 

[218] 



FURNITURE AND FURNISHINGS 

cutting out the wood wherever it touched. It was, in 
fact, a reversal of the principle of the turning-lathe, 
the tool itself doing the revolving instead of the wood. 

The whirling tool was fastened to a movable arm 
above a piece of wood on which a pattern had been 
drawn or stamped. By setting this machine in motion, 
the workman, by guiding the whirling chisel over the 
surface marked by the pattern, could carve out the 
wood much more rapidly than could be done by the 
hand-carver. Such mechanical carving was rough 
and unfinished as it came from the machine, but a 
few hours of additional work by the hand-carver could 
quickly convert it into a well-finished product, scarcely 
distinguishable from the coarser forms of hand-carving. 

Such machines at once menaced the profession of 
the wood-carver. Their work was so rapid, their 
manipulation so simple, and the results so closely 
resembled hand-carving that there was little choice 
between the two in certain grades of work. The differ- 
ence in the cost of production was, of course, enormous, 
and what still further menaced the wood-carvers was 
the fact that an unskilled workman might operate 
such a machine. Almost any workman could learn 
to follow a pattern with a little practice, so that the 
services of trained wood-carvers would only be neces- 
sary for giving certain finishing touches, or for doing 
the very finest work in factories. Thus many wood- 
carvers found themselves confronted with the necessity 
of remaining idle or accepting positions as machine 
operators at the pay of unskilled workmen. 

But the end of the degradation of the wood-carver 

[219] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

was not yet. Improvements were being made constantly 
both in the carving-machines themselves and in the 
methods of using them, until these machines were 
able to produce work of such perfection that even the 
finishing touches of the hand-carver were unnecessary. 
And presently, these machines were so improved and 
made in such a manner that instead of turning out a 
single piece of carving at one time half a dozen or more 
1 /'.plicate carved pieces could be made by the workman 
at one time. 

The principle on which these machines work is 
that of the familiar drawing implement, the panto- 
graph. In this instrument, two arms are arranged so 
that the drawing-points upon them move always in 
parallel directions and at equal distances. By this ar- 
rangement it is possible to draw two exactly duplicate 
pictures at the same time, or to copy a picture already 
made by passing one of the points over the outline of 
such a picture, while the other marks on a separate 
sheet. In this simple copying pantograph no pro- 
vision is made for the points moving in a vertical 
direction, only a lateral movement being necessary. 
But by adopting the same principle and having two 
points always at exactly the same relative distance 
from each other, vertical as well as horizontal dupli- 
cate movements in any direction may be made. 

This was the principle now adopted in these dupli- 
cating carving machines, where six, eight, or even a 
dozen whirling chisels, arranged one above the other 
in a vertical frame, all act in unison, following exactly 
the movements of the pilot implement guided by the 

[ 220] 



FURNITURE AND FURNISHINGS 

workman. With such a machine the workman con- 
sumed no more time or effort than in manipulating 
the more simple device, but when he had finished trac- 
ing the pattern before him he had carved not merely 
a single piece of wood, but perhaps eleven other dupli- 
cate pieces equally well. Obviously such machines 
greatly reduced the cost of mechanical carving, since 
one operator performed the work of twelve. 

Another modification soon made it possible for very 
unskilled workmen to do duplicate carving. In place 
of making the guiding, or pilot tool, in the pantographic 
series, actually perform work of cutting, this was used 
as a dummy in the machines, merely following the sur- 
face of a piece of carving and guiding the duplicate 
tools. In this manner a carved model was used in 
place of a board with the pattern outlined upon it, 
the dummy chisel passing over every part of the sur- 
face, causing the other chisels in the series to follow 
the course of the pilot chisel, but cutting instead of 
merely passing over it. 

As the result of this arrangement a skilled workman 
was no longer required to do the carving. Given a 
carved model, a boy could guide the dummy chisel 
over its surface and make duplicate carvings as well 
as a highly paid man. The carved model could be 
used an indefinite number of times, and duplicate 
carvings could be turned out for a very trifling sum. 

Nor was the quality of some of this machine-made 
carving to be despised, even from the standpoint of 
the hand-carver. By using carefully adjusted sets of 
chisels of various sizes, almost all kinds of delicate 

[221] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

carving could be done in duplicate by skilled workmen 
— carving that could not be distinguished from hand- 
work except by the expert. And when a few finishing 
touches of hand- work were given, the deception was 
complete. The result was that the market was soon 
flooded with well-carved furniture at a price within the 
reach of many besides the opulent. 

All this, of course, was disastrous to the art of wood- 
carving. The older carvers could not compete by 
hand with such machinery, and apprentices hesitated 
to adopt a calling that promised so little for the future. 
The position of the wood-carver was thus made analo- 
gous to the position of the wood-engraver, the 
mechanical carving-machine throwing the one out 
of employment, just as the process of photographic 
reproduction of pictures had done in the case of the 
other. 

It should not be understood, however, that fine 
hand-carving has entirely disappeared any more than 
has fine wood-engraving. There is still a restricted 
market for both, and will be in all probability for all 
time to come. The aggregate amount of hand-tool 
work, however, is only a small fractional part of the 
total amount of carved wood produced every year. 
But even this kind of hand -carving is not followed 
along exactly the same lines as formerly. The hand- 
carver, even of high-class carving, now hastens his work 
with certain mechanical cutting implements, modi- 
fications of the kind used on the pantographic machines 
just referred to, or by some of the marvellous lathes 
now made. By this compromise the cost of fine wood- 

[222] 



FURNITURE AND FURNISHINGS 

carving is greatly reduced, and a limited number of 
fine wood-engravers given employment. 



OTHER INGENIOUS TOOLS USED IN FURNITURE-MAKING 

The mechanical carving-tools just referred to give 
some idea of the ingenious machines now used to per- 
form work formerly done by tedious hand-methods. 
Among these the belt-saw should be mentioned. This 
saw, as its name indicates, is made in the form of a con- 
tinuous steel band having one edge fitted with teeth, 
and running over wheels like the leather belt of ordi- 
nary machinery. This saw has the advantage over 
the ordinary circular, or jig-saw, in the fact that it 
can be tilted so as to saw at an angle, thus cutting 
bevelled edges. 

The time-honored turning-lathe, just referred to, 
has also been improved, so that in place of turning 
only relatively simple patterns, circular in form, those 
of almost any size or shape may be made. Some of 
the most beautiful and complicated pieces of woodwork 
closely resembling wood-carving are now made on 
this machine. One of the most useful forms of the 
lathe, however, is the very simple one with which 
veneering is done. 

The art of veneering is almost as old as cabinet- 
making itself, and the process of applying the veneer 
is practically the same to-day as it was several cen- 
turies ago. This consists in gluing a thin layer of 
wood upon some underlying timber, usually of inferior 
quality, for improving the latter's appearance. In 

[223] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY . 

this manner imitations of valuable furniture may be 
made at comparatively small cost. It should not 
be understood, however, that all veneering is done 
for purposes of deception, or that the wood over which 
a veneer is placed is always of inferior quality. Some 
of the best solid mahogany furniture is made with 
veneered surfaces, this being done because it is fre- 
quently possible to obtain more beautiful effects of 
the grain by using the veneer than by simply polishing 
the surface of the solid wood with the grain exposed 
as it appears in the tree itself. In such cases a thin 
veneer of beautifully grained mahogany is glued to the 
underlying mahogany wood, this veneering being some- 
times scarcely thicker than a sheet of paper. 

Two methods are used in preparing wood for ve- 
neering, one by sawing the timber into thin plates, 
the other by slicing it with knives. By the sawing 
method it is possible to obtain a somewhat better 
grade of veneer on account of the position of the grain. 
The older method of sawing was done by hand, the 
successive layers being removed one at a time, but the 
modern method is to cut several layers at once by 
means of thin saws placed in parallel close to- 
gether. In both of these methods there is a waste 
of wood corresponding to the thickness of the saw 
which is sometimes thicker than the veneer itself; and 
as this process is relatively slow it is not used except 
for making the highest grade of veneer. 

A more economical and rapid process is the method 
of slicing by turning off continuous layers from logs 
in mammoth lathes. In cutting by this method the 

[224] 



FURNITURE AND FURNISHINGS 

logs are sawed into proper lengths to fit the turning- 
lathes, some of these machines being able to turn logs 
ten feet or more in length. The logs are then placed 
in great tanks of hot water which are heated by steam 
coils, and are then steeped and soaked until the outer 
layers of the wood are thoroughly softened. As most 
of the wood used in veneering is of an extremely dense 
structure, this soaking process requires some time, 
frequently many weeks, before the logs are softened 
to a sufficient depth for cutting. 

When ready for cutting these logs are taken from 
the soaking-tanks and placed at once in the great 
lathes. Here they are revolved in such a manner that 
a thin layer is sliced off along the entire length of the 
log, the cutting-knife being so arranged that the entire 
outer surface of the log to a depth of several inches may 
be removed as a continuous sheet resembling paper as 
it comes from the roll of the modern printing-press. 
These great sheets are absolutely uniform in thickness, 
and as they emerge from the lathe are cut off in widths 
of convenient size, dried, and piled up like reams of 
paper. 

In this manner a log two feet in diameter may be 
pared continuously until it has been reduced to a thick- 
ness of nine or ten inches. The amount of veneer 
furnished by such a log is determined of course by 
the thickness of the shaving, but at the usual thickness, 
it would furnish something like thirty thousand square 
feet of the material. 

As just noted, veneering cut in this manner is not 
usually considered of the finest quality. The direc- 

VOL. IX. — 15 [ 22 5] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

tion of the grain is not the most advantageous for pro- 
ducing beautiful effects, and the steaming process 
injures the coloring to some extent. Nevertheless, 
this process is so rapid, cheap, and without waste, that 
it is popular for making all but the very finest grades 
of veneer. 



[226] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

AT just what period in his evolution primitive 
man may have learned to mold crude vessels 
out of clay and harden them in the sun, or 
how he came to learn this at all, must ever remain 
a matter of conjecture. It is certain, however, that 
the first steps of the process were taken ages and ages 
before the dawn of history, perhaps even before our 
primitive ancestor had learned to use fire in preparing 
his food. The idea may have been suggested to him 
by noticing that his own footprints in wet clay became 
hard, stonelike receptacles when the clay had dried in 
the sun. Once he had noticed this, the idea that use- 
ful vessels could be molded out of this same plastic 
substance and dried in the sun would sooner or later 
suggest itself to his mind. 

But such crude clay vessels would be of little use 
for holding liquids, since sun-dried clay absorbs water 
readily and becomes soft. They could be used for 
holding dry substances, however, just as similar ves- 
sels are used for this very purpose to-day in rainless 
Egypt. Still they would be of relatively little value 
as compared with vessels made in the same way, 
and hardened by fire. When men had learned to 
harden the clay by burning it, they had at hand mate- 

[227] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

rial from which they could make all manner of useful 
things that would be as enduring as rock itself. So 
enduring, indeed, that these crude products of the 
first potters, together with their fossil remains, form 
the most important records of prehistoric man. 

Obviously, primitive man must have learned the 
use of fire before he learned to make fire-baked pot- 
tery; and it is more than probable that it was some 
accident with the " untamed element" that taught 
him how its very fury could be thus turned to account. 
A conflagration that destroyed his home may have 
converted the clay-daubed walls of his hut, which could 
hardly hope to endure the first prolonged rainstorm, 
into a stony substance all but indestructible. Or in 
raking the ashes of his burned home in the hope of 
finding some cherished article that had escaped de- 
struction by the conflagration, he may have found that 
his crude clay dishes, far from being destroyed by the 
fire, had been transformed into a new and infinitely more 
useful material, while still retaining their original shapes. 
Some such hint would be sure to come sooner or later 
to every race of people living in a tropical or temperate 
zone; and it would follow inevitably that this hint 
would be taken advantage of, and the art of pottery- 
making discovered. 

In point of fact, practically all the primitive races 
are familiar with some kind of pottery-making. The 
peculiarly low-type savages of Australia have never 
learned it, nor have the natives of Greenland and other 
arctic regions; but the reason for this ignorance on the 
part of the arctic dwellers is explained by climatic con- 

[228] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

ditions. In a land that is buried under snow most 
of the year and where the only fuel obtainable is the 
fat of animals, there is no chance for the discovery of 
an art requiring an abundance of earth and fuel. But 
similar races living further south had learned the art, 
and were very skillful potters, centuries before the 
dawn of civilization. The remains of pottery left 
by the prehistoric mound-builders and cliff-dwellers 
in America, for example, show that they had ac- 
quired quite a high degree of skill and knowledge 
of the art. 

All Western races were centuries behind the Eastern 
Asiatics in learning the art of making high-grade 
pottery. The Chinese and Japanese were making 
glazed pottery at least two thousand years before the 
secret of its manufacture was learned by Europeans, 
who had to content themselves with unglazed ware 
until the eleventh century. Then the Western pot- 
ters learned to coat their rough vessels with a silicious 
substance, which, when heated to the melting point, 
formed a glassy coating over the surfaces of the ware, 
not only enhancing its beauty, but rendering it non- 
porous. For it should be remembered that unglazed 
pottery is very porous and absorbent. It cannot be 
used for cooking and will not retain liquids for any very 
great length of time unless coated with some waxy sub- 
stance. It played no such important part in civilization, 
therefore, as the metals, after methods of working 
these substances were discovered, until the art of glazing 
became known. Then earthenware took its place be- 
side iron itself in usefulness. Iron, brass, and pew- 

[229] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

ter cups and dishes were gradually displaced by earth- 
enware vessels in the kitchen; earthenware jugs and 
jars took the place of wooden tubs and kegs in the 
cellar; while retorts and beakers that resisted excessive 
heat and the action of the strongest acids in a manner 
quite unknown before, came into use in the labora- 
tories of the alchemists, and played an important 
part in establishing the science of chemistry. 

It should not be understood that the knowledge of 
forming a glaze on certain kinds of pottery was con- 
fined to the Chinese for so many centuries before 
Western Europeans attained it. The Egyptians knew 
something of the matter ; and the Greeks used a thin 
glaze on their ware. The Romans adopted a glazing 
process from the Greeks, and seem to have invented 
a glazed ware of their own, which they scattered far 
and wide over their domains. But this art of mak- 
ing glazed pottery seems to have been forgotten by 
the Western nations during the Dark Ages, if, indeed, 
they had ever learned it; and it was not until five 
or six centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire 
that the art was revived, or rediscovered. It is sig- 
nificant that this revival came at about the time that 
the straggling Crusaders were making their way back 
into Europe, bringing with them so many useful ideas 
gathered from the despised infidel in the Holy Land. 
It seems more than likely, therefore, that the Arabs may 
be indirectly responsible for the introduction of glazed 
pottery into the West. If so, it is simply one more 
link in the chain of evidence to prove that the Crusades 
were among the most useful and successful series of 

[230] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

warlike expeditions ever undertaken, although they 
failed so completely in attaining the object for which 
they were projected. 

THE MANUFACTURE OF POTTERY 

The processes necessary to the manufacture of pot- 
tery are many, and range from the simplest to the most 
complicated and delicate. Yet in a general way the 
methods have been the same all over the world through- 
out the ages, until the nineteenth century, when the 
introduction of machinery in the Western nations 
changed their methods and gave them the advantage 
over the Orientals in the better forms of commercial 
pottery. The potter's wheel — a revolving horizontal 
disk upon which the clay is molded — had been the 
most essential machine to the potter in Asia as well 
as in Europe, as it had been two thousand years earlier 
in Greece and Rome, and still earlier in Egypt. Nor 
should it be understood that power-driven machinery 
replaced it, or changed it materially except in the 
matter of adaptation of its driving mechanism. For 
certain kinds of wares, where the individual skill of 
a workman is essential, the potter's wheel is likely 
to remain always in use; but in the great factories, 
even where very fine grades of commercial china are 
made, the wheel is now gradually being replaced by 
other machinery. 

But the potter's wheel, while so essential to the man- 
ufacture of fine earthenware, was not responsible for 
the improvement in the ware from the unglazed, crudely 

[231] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

fashioned vessels of the ancients to the modern finished 
product; nor was the improvement in any machinery 
responsible for it. The wares of Charpentier, Josiah 
Wedgwood, the Davenports, and Hirschovel, were 
superior to those of the earlier periods, not because 
these masters had greatly superior implements, but 
because they understood methods of blending and 
applying their materials better than their predecessors. 
Knowledge of the methods of making fine china ware 
preceded the introduction of perfected mechanical 
devices for manufacturing it. 

In making most fine pottery, two separate heating 
processes are necessary. The first of these, which 
precedes the glazing, is known as the "biscuit fire," 
and the unglazed ware as it comes from this oven is 
known technically as "biscuit." This firing shrinks 
the ware, and converts the clay into a firm, brittle, 
stony substance, very porous and absorbent. This 
cannot be reconverted into plastic clay by any known 
process, although its chemical constituents are prac- 
tically the same. The second firing is done after the 
glazing material has been applied to the biscuit by 
one of the various methods that will be described a 
little later, the heat of the glost-oven, or glaze-kiln, 
melting the glazing material, which becomes an in- 
tegral part of the ware itself. 

THE RAW MATERIALS 

Generally speaking, the materials for making fine 
pottery may be divided into four classes. In the first 

[232] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

are the plastic clays — China-clay (kaolin), "ball" 
or "blue" clay. In the second are the glass-forming 
materials used in the body or in the glaze. In the third, 
flint and quartz, sometimes called "indifferent sub- 
stances." And in the fourth, the coloring agents, 
made of metals or metallic oxides. Most of these sub- 
stances are natural products. Their chemical compo- 
sition is well known, and many of them can be produced 
synthetically in the laboratory; but good pottery can 
not be made from these artificial products. The com- 
position of clay, for example, is no secret, but laboratory- 
made clay has not the peculiar plastic quality of nat- 
ural clay so essential to the potter. 

Chemically, clay is a hydrated silicate of alumina 
in combination with slight quantities of such substances 
as iron, lime, soda, or potash, and is the result of the 
decomposition of felspathic rocks. It is much richer 
in alumina than the rocks, however, since alumina, 
being so light a substance, is held longer in suspension 
while the heavier materials settle to the bottom. From 
the potter's point of view the most injurious substance 
contained in clay is iron, owing to its coloring prop- 
erties. If every trace of this metal is not removed, 
the pottery as it comes from the ovens will be "off 
color." The slightest trace, too small to be noticed 
readily by ordinary tests, will give the disfiguring 
stain when the ware is placed in the firing-kiln. Larger 
quantities give the familiar red color seen in bricks and 
flower-pots, although no such color is apparent in 
the clay before firing. 

It should not be understood that every kind of clay 

[ 2 33] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

is suitable* for pottery-making. The clays from which 
such coarse substances as bricks and flower-pots are 
made, for example, contain too many other impuri- 
ties besides iron to make them available for pottery. 
Brick clays are common in almost every country and 
climate. Not so the "blue" or "ball" clays. The 
available beds of these are comparatively few, some of 
them lying from sixty to a hundred feet below the 
surface of the ground. But even when covered to this 
depth, the substance is of sufficient value to pay for 
its excavation and removal. As it comes from the 
beds it is of a bluish color, due to organic matter; 
but when this is removed by moderate heat, the clay 
becomes practically pure white. As found in nature 
the stratum of clay is from three to six feet thick, 
usually covered by a layer of sand. For shipment, 
the clay is cut into blocks of a size convenient for han- 
dling, which, when dried, have the appearance of gray 
stone. 

The chemical composition of blue or ball clay, 
according to Muspratt, is as follows, although differ- 
ent specimens would show variations from this: — 

Silica 46.38 Lime 1 . 20 

Alumina 38.04 Magnesia (trace) 

Protoxide of Iron .... 1 .04 Water 13-44 

The mass of any clay varies with the amount of 
water it contains. When dried, some clays lose as 
much as thirty per cent, in weight. On the other hand, 
if clay is stirred in great quantities of water, its parti- 
cles are so small and so light that a homogeneous 
mixture having the consistency of thin syrup can be 

[234] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

made. From such mixtures the impurities are re- 
moved more readily than would be possible from the 
clay in the natural state. The exact amount of solid 
substance per pound can also be determined more 
readily and more accurately than in the more solid 
forms. For these reasons many pottery establishments 
mix all their ingredients in water, the mixtures being 
known technically as "slips." The exact amount of 
solid material contained in each slip is known, and 
may be easily measured in the simplest manner. 
For example, a pint of ball-clay slip that weighs 
twenty-four ounces will contain approximately six and 
one-half ounces of dry material. If this is the propor- 
tion desired the workmen can easily obtain the neces- 
sary mixture by adding water to the clay which is 
stirred, or " blunged," so as to be of uniform density, 
until his pint measure when full tips the scales at the 
twenty-four ounce mark. 

Of course it is possible to reduce all the materials 
to a perfectly dry state, mix them in the desired pro- 
portions, and bring them to a workable plastic state 
by the addition of water; and this method is used in 
some of the large factories. The usual method, how- 
ever, is to make slips of the different materials, each 
slip of predetermined strength, mix them all together, 
and then remove the excess of water. 

China-clay, the other substance coming in the first 
class of materials, is a white, earthy substance, easily 
pulverized. In this country it is very generally called 
kaolin. Like the blue clay it is found in many differ- 
ent countries, China and Japan, Germany, France, 

[235] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

England, and several other European countries, as 
well as in certain places in America. As it contains 
many impurities wherever found, it must be washed 
before being used for making pottery. This is done 
by adding large quantities of water until a thin " so- 
lution" is made, when the impurities, which are heavier 
than the kaolin, settle to the bottom. The lighter 
particles of the clay may then be run off. 

It is a peculiar characteristic of this clay that the 
commoner qualities are the more plastic and require 
less care in handling than the finer grades. None of 
them are as plastic as the ball clay, however, but they 
contain very little of the objectionable iron. This 
clay is used in the pottery to strengthen it against 
heavy weights and sudden changes of temperature, 
as well as to increase its whiteness. Muspratt's analy- 
sis shows it to contain substances in the following 
proportions: 

Silica 45.5a 

Alumina, with a trace of oxide of iron 40-76 

Lime 2.17 

Potassia, with trace of soda 1 .90 

Magnesia, phosphorus (traces) , and sulphuric acid (traces) 

Water, with small quantity of organic matter 9-65 

For the glass-forming materials used in the body 
of the earthenware, as well as in the glaze, a granite 
in which the felspar is incompletely decomposed and 
which is still fusible because of the presence of alka- 
line silicates, is used. It is called china-stone, or Cornish 
stone, since the English supply comes from the hills of 
Cornwall. It is rich in silica (about 73 per cent.) but 
contains also about 18 per cent, of alumina with 

[236] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

small quantities of lime, magnesia, traces of iron, and 
from four to six per cent, alkali. It is prepared for 
use by grinding between millstones. 

Flint, which is classed as an "indifferent substance," 
is an oxide of silicon (Si0 2 ) which contains certain 
organic substances, and sometimes iron, in its natural 
state. It is used in the ware to prevent contraction 
and give whiteness. It is widely distributed in the 
earth's crust, but the best flint for the potter's use is 
obtained near Dieppe, in France. It is prepared by 
calcining in furnaces, then crushed in a stone-crusher 
or stamp-mill, and finally ground between millstones. 
As in the case of all substances that are ground for use 
in the potteries, this grinding process is a delicate one, 
from the fact that impurities may be introduced. Thus, 
if the millstones contain an excess of lime, or iron, 
or coloring matter, the ground product may acquire 
these substances, and thus be rendered unfit for use in 
making fine pottery. And this might not be discovered 
until the ware had been molded and fired, involving 
great loss of time and material. 

The determination of the proper degree of fineness 
in grinding is made by passing the substance through 
silk or wire lawn, although an expert can tell the con- 
dition with wonderful accuracy by testing it between 
his teeth or nails. When no grit can be detected the 
substance is fine enough for the potter's use. 

No matter how pure the natural clays may be, there 
is always present a trace of the oxide of iron, which 
would give the ware a yellowish tinge after firing if 
not counteracted by the use of a "stain," as it is tech- 

[237] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

nically called. The stain is an oxide of cobalt — a 
beautiful deep blue which is not affected by heat. 
A sufficient quantity of this is mixed in the "body" 
to neutralize exactly the yellow stain of the iron, so 
that the ware will be pure white, just as bluing is used 
in laundries for whitening linen. 

The principal source of cobalt to-day is Hungary, 
although it is found in many other countries, and has 
been used for centuries by Egyptian, Chinese, Ara- 
bian, and other potters. The purest form of cobalt is 
obtained as a by-product of nickel. It must be ground 
to impalpable fineness before using in pottery, or other- 
wise small blue specks will appear, as may be seen 
frequently in the cheaper forms of earthenware. 

It is apparent, even from this brief description of 
the processes preliminary to the manufacture of pot- 
tery, that there is a wide gap between the work of the 
primitive potter who molded a handful of clay and 
placed it in his fire, and the modern scientific methods 
that have developed from this simple process. Yet 
in all the succeeding steps in the manufacture of the 
ware there are quite as wide gaps, which have been 
bridged by modern chemistry and mechanics. 

MIXING THE MATERIALS 

The first step to be taken in the manufacture of 
pottery is that of mixing the prepared products in the 
proportions required. Two of these mixtures are 
necessary, one for the "body," the thick substance of the 
ware itself; the other for the "glaze" or thin coating 
of vitreous substance covering it. 

[238] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

The essential qualities of the body mixture, as stated 
by Sandeman, are as follows: 

"It must be sufficiently plastic to be easily work- 
able. It must be sufficiently infusible to prevent col- 
lapse in the ovens, but sufficiently fusible to become 
dense and sonorous. It must have sufficient stability 
to resist excessive contraction and must not become 
crooked. It must be sufficiently free from coloring 
matters to become clean and white after firing. " 

The exact proportions in which the various pre- 
pared materials are mixed, and the method of mixing 
them, vary, of course, with the results desired, as well 
as with the individual preferences of the manufacturer. 
Every manufacturer has formulas which he considers 
either better, or more expedient for his purpose. 
Roughly speaking, however, some formula like the 
following is used in most factories, the quality of 
materials making a little difference in their relative 
proportions : — 

Blue clay 10-15 parts. 

Kaolin 8-9 " 

Flint 4-5 " 

Stone 2-3 " 

Stain (sufficient to neutralize yellow solor) 

Each of these substances must first be brought into 
a state of suspension in water, so that the mixture 
represents a definite weight to the ounce, and is uniform 
throughout, after which all the substances are mixed to- 
gether thoroughly, and sufficient water drained, or 
pressed out, to leave a plastic mass of the proper con- 
sistency for molding and working. The mixing process 
is called "blunging." Formerly it was done by hand, 

[239] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

the substance to be blunged being thrown into wooden 
tanks, the right proportion of water added, and the 
mixing done with wooden paddles, hoes, or rakes. 
In up-to-date potteries, however, mechanical blungers 
are now used. These are octagonal tanks, in which 
several propeller-like blades are arranged to revolve 
horizontally, on the principle of the Archimedean 
screw, so that the liquid in the tank is kept constantly 
circulating in all directions, drawn upward and later- 
ally by the action of the blades, and descending by 
the action of gravity. The octagonal sides of the 
blunger help in the mixing process, the particles being 
jostled against the angles, whereas in a circular tank 
they might be carried round and round. 

In large factories there is at least one blunger for 
every one of the several materials to be used in making 
the body. When these materials have all been brought 
to the proper density and churned until the mix- 
ture is uniform throughout, they are passed on to the 
mixing " arks." The mixing arks are made on the same 
general principles as the blungers, although they 
differ somewhat in the details of construction. For 
convenience they are frequently placed on a lower 
level than the blungers, and into them the blunged 
material is pumped, or run, passing through one or 
more sieves which arrest all lumps, or particles of 
foreign material. 

There are many ways of measuring the exact pro- 
portions of the blunged materials that are to go into 
the mixing ark, such as weighing, or measuring in 
pails or dippers of a certain size. But as all these 

[240] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

methods take much time, and sometimes prove in- 
accurate from the possibility of mistakes in counting, 
the potter usually prefers to make his measurements 
with what he calls a " mixing staff." This is simply 
a lath with nails driven into it at intervals, each nail 
representing the height to which each slip of the mixture 
must reach when the staff is thrust upright into the 
ark. It makes no difference to the measurer using 
such a staff, therefore, whether the liquids from 
the blungers are pumped, dipped, or run into the 
ark, as his guide is the rise of the liquid of the mixture 
along his staff until the indicating nail is reached. 

Of course, since different quantities of each slip 
are used, the nails in the staff will be placed at unequal 
intervals, and it is necessary that the slips be run into 
the ark in a definite order. Usually the lighter ma- 
terials, blue clay and china clay, are introduced first, 
to facilitate mixing, followed by flint, stone, and, 
lastly, the stain. As soon as this last is introduced, the 
machinery is started and the churning process con- 
tinued until all the particles of the different substances 
are held uniformly in suspension throughout the 
mixture. 

From the mixing ark the slip goes to the "lawns," 
which, as their name indicates, are sieves made of 
either silk or wire with fine meshes of a definite size. 
These are arranged in "lawn boxes" in two or three 
tiers, one above another, the coarser lawns being at 
the top where the stream of slip first enters. This 
straining-out process removes the coarser particles 
and bits of foreign matter, but there may still remain 

vol. ix. — 16 [ 241 ] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

very minute particles of iron, small enough to pass 
through the meshes of the lawns, yet large enough 
to make stains in the finished ware. To remove these 
magnets are placed in the stream of slip as it comes 
from the lawn box, and magnets are often placed in 
the "finish ark," the churning device into which the 
slip is run from the lawns, and in any other place where 
a chance particle of the metal might be found. For, as 
we know, iron is the arch enemy of the potter. It is 
in the original clay, and as the machinery of the fac- 
tory must necessarily be constructed of it, it menaces 
every operation of the manufacturing process. 

The finish ark repeats the stirring process of the 
mixing ark, and from this the slip is passed on to the 
filter-presses. In these the water of the slip is squeezed 
out through strong cotton cloths, until the mass 
remaining is of the proper consistency for molding 
into the ware. 

One more operation is necessary, however, before 
the material is actually turned over to the workmen. 
This is called "wedging," and is now performed by 
a machine called a "pug-mill." The object of the 
operation is to make all the clay coming from the 
presses of exactly the same consistency. In the old 
method of wedging by hand the workman cut off 
pieces of the clay with a wire and threw them repeatedly 
upon a prepared block until the mass was kneaded 
thoroughly. This slow hand-process is still used on 
a small scale in some of the operations of turning 
or pressing, when the operator's clay may have dried 
a little on the outer surfaces; but in the main it is 

[242] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

performed by the pug-mill This machine resembles 
a large sausage-machine in its mechanism, having a 
horizontal, cylindrical body in which the blades re- 
volve about a shaft running through the center. The 
clay is fed in at one end of the cylinder, where it is cut, 
kneaded, and pressed along the body of the machine, 
and finally is squeezed through an opening at the oppo- 
site end, more thoroughly " wedged" than is possible 
by hand. As it emerges from the pug-mill it is cut 
off in sizes convenient for handling, by means of a brass 
wire, and is then ready for the workmen. 

THE GLAZE AND ITS PREPARATION 

There are many intermediate steps in the manu- 
facture of pottery between the "wedging" and the final 
application of the glaze, but as many processes in the 
preparation of the glaze closely resemble those used in 
preparing the clay, it will perhaps be as well to consider 
them here. 

When the peculiar qualities of a perfect glaze are con- 
sidered, it is not surprising that it took so many centu- 
ries for potters to discover and perfect it. The coating 
of glaze when applied to ware in the biscuit state plays 
the same part that a coat of paint does to a wooden 
building — it adds beauty and gives permanence to the 
structure. But the comparison ends here. When 
fired, the glaze becomes a part of the ware it covers, 
not a superficial layer, as in the case of paint applied 
to boards. It must be sufficiently hard to resist abra- 
sions, not affected to any extent by acids, must fuse at 

[243] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

a lower temperature than the ware it covers, and at 
the same time have the property of expanding and 
contracting in the same ratio, or otherwise fine cracking, 
or "crazing" as it is called, will result. This last is 
considered one of the greatest defects in earthenware, 
although it is sometimes produced intentionally by 
Chinese potters in making ornamental pieces. Crazed 
pieces, such as table dishes, that must be put to hard 
usage, become discolored and eventually fall to pieces. 

When we consider that the glaze is a composite of 
several different substances, each with a different 
expanding ratio; that the mixture itself will have a 
still different expanding ratio, which changes with 
the varying quantities of the substances it contains; 
and that this same thing is true of the body-substance 
of the ware, it seems almost a hopeless task to attempt 
to produce the right combination of the two. Yet 
the potter has solved this in a most practical and eco- 
nomical way, as witness the quantities of good china- 
ware now placed upon the market at a price within the 
reach even of the very poor. But what an expenditure 
of time, thought, and material wasted in experiments, 
the cheap little cup on the table of the humble laborer 
represents ! 

The dry materials generally used for glazes are china- 
clay and flint. These are combined in varying pro- 
portions with " fluxing materials," such as carbonate of 
lime, carbonate of potash, carbonate of soda, carbonate 
or oxide of lead, china- stone, tincal, boric acid, and 
borax. Some of these are soluble in water, and as 
the glaze is applied as a liquid, it is necessary to vitrify 

[244] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

them into insoluble substances before using. This 
is done in the process of "fritting," which will be re- 
ferred to in a moment. 

Flint and china-clay give hardness, transparency, 
and depth of tone to the glaze. Carbonate of lime, 
in the form of chalk, makes the glaze harder and im- 
proves the color. It does not promote fusibility as 
readily as some of the other substances, borax (bi- 
borate of soda) heading the list in this respect. Indeed, 
borax is an absolutely indispensable substance to the 
potter, and in recent years the cost of its production 
has been greatly lessened, thanks to the work of prac- 
tical chemists. Borax not only facilitates the making 
of the glaze, but gives great brilliancy to the finished 
product. 

The fritting process, by which the soluble substances 
of the glaze are vitrified, is done by subjecting the sub- 
stances to direct flames in a kiln. This kiln is a tank 
made of fire-brick, so arranged that the flames coming 
from the fire-box are reverberated down over the ma- 
terials to be fritted. This reduces it to a mass of molten 
glass which is then drawn off into a tank of cold water. 
The plunge into the cold water breaks the stream of 
molten glass into small particles, which are more easily 
pulverized by the subsequent grinding process. The 
deeper and colder the water into which the plunge is 
made, the finer will be the frit particles. 

The frit is ground between specially prepared mill- 
stones, or in a more modern machine, the Alsing 
cylinder. The particles are moistened and ground 
until every trace of grit has disappeared, the finished 

[245] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

product having about the consistency of cream. It 
is then lawned and passed on to the blungers. 

The proportions of the materials used in making the 
frit, and the materials themselves, vary according to 
the purpose for which the frit is designed, but the 
following formulas (by Sandeman) give a general idea 
of % the proportions used: 

Borax 120 lbs. 

China-stone 120 " 

Flint 60 " 

Whiting 80 " 

China-clay 20 " 

or 

Tincal (native borax) 144 lbs. 

Stone 84 " 

Flint 66 " 

Whiting 48 " 

China-clay 24 " 

or 

Boracic acid 88 lbs. 

Soda ash 39 " 

China-clay 37 " 

China-stone 75 " 

Flint 75 " 

Whiting 52 " 

METHODS OF MAKING POTTERY BY HAND 

The last quarter of a century has seen machinery 
rapidly replacing hand-work in Western potteries, al- 
though the workmen themselves still find plenty of 
tasks, only of somewhat different nature from those 
of former years. It is not possible to give machinery 
the brain of a workman although it can be made to 
surpass him in speed and dexterity under his guiding 
hand. And so while pottery-making machines have 

[246] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

changed the forms of occupation, they have opened 
new fields to the workmen, helping mankind as a 
whole, if sometimes injuring the individual. Its most 
disastrous effect seems to have fallen upon the oldest 
and most picturesque figure among pottery-makers, 
the "thrower" or man who makes his wares on the 
time-honored potter's wheel. 

The passing of the thrower must be a source of re- 
gret to any person who has ever seen one of these 
craftsmen work his marvels on a lump of clay placed 
upon his revolving table, with no other implements 
than those Nature gave him. The number of men 
capable of acquiring the necessary skill for doing this 
well has always been limited even in the days before 
the introduction of machinery, and a long and tedious 
apprenticeship is indispensable. 

The potter's wheel is a horizontal disc of wood, so 
arranged that it revolves at varying speeds at the will 
of the thrower. In former times the wheel was run 
by foot power, or with the aid of an assistant who 
turned the disc at the speed required by the thrower. 
In the modern-power thrower's wheel the speed is 
regulated by means of cones controlled by pressure of 
the thrower's knee or foot. 

Merely being able to fashion things at will out of 
clay on the wheel is only one of the requirements of 
the first-class thrower. In addition to this he must 
know the various properties of the clay he is working, 
including the amount of shrinkage, so that he can 
duplicate a finished piece of ware exactly. An expe- 
rienced thrower can do this with astonishing accuracy. 

[ 2 47] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

Given a piece of ware to be duplicated, he first fashions 
a sample piece, finishing it inside and out to his liking. 
He then cuts the piece in half to make sure of the thick- 
ness. If this is satisfactory the weight is taken so 
that thereafter his assistant will hand him balls of 
clay of corresponding weight, which not only saves 
much waste of material but aids the thrower in gauging 
the exact size. 

He begins the process of modelling the piece by dash- 
ing the ball of clay down upon the disc; then, with 
hands moistened, he works the revolving mass until 
it is free from all bubbles and is thoroughly homo- 
zettrtus He then ir.str^s hi? rhunzs ir.:: the center 
of the mass, and between his thumbs and fingers the 
sides of the vessel rise with marvelous rapidity into 
the shape he requires. If it is a large piece he may use 
a "rib" — an implement whose edge represent? the 
curve of the vessel — for finishin g it But this is used 
simply as a time-saver, since Every step of the process 
can be done with his thumbs and fingers, provided, of 
course, the opening at the top is not too small. Should 
this be the case the thrower makes the piece in two 
parts, sticking them together afterward. 

In any event he must be careful to leave the clay 
thick enough so that the turner, whose work follows 
that of the thrower, will not make the finished piece 
too thin. In some factories, the thrower only models 
the piece roughly in the shape required, the final shap- 
ing and finishing being left to the turner. Obvious 
crude throwing of this kind does not require the skill 
of the master- workman. 

[248] 





- i E L 



The upper figure shows a model of the most prir oe of p: 

wheel. The lower is the ordinar type of hand wheel, in using which 
thrower" requires an ..•• rns the wheel as he dire_ 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

The more the clay is worked and molded by the 
thrower the better will be the ware, and any careless 
work on his part is likely to show in the finished piece. 
It may have every appearance of being well made 
before firing, yet as it comes from the kiln it will bear 
the marks of the thrower's carelessness in the form of 
ridges running from top to bottom, and distortion of 
the piece caused by variations in the pressure of the 
thrower's hands. 

"As machines are now rapidly replacing human 
throwers, a few words on the decadence of throwing 
may not be amiss," says Sandeman. "In times gone 
by nearly all round, hollow ware was made by throwers, 
and a really skilful man not only impressed originality 
on any artistic work he had to do, but could also, when 
necessity arose, produce with astonishing rapidity a 
large quantity of any article exactly to size. It is not 
wished by this statement to insinuate that there are 
no such men to be found to-day, as that would create 
quite a false impression, but during the last quarter 
of a century business in pottery all over the world 
has increased in volume owing to a general higher 
standard of living and a larger demand for comforts 
in daily life, and the demand for throwers exceeded 
the supply, as the number of good throwers was always 
limited, and it required a long apprenticeship to learn 
their art, and even then very few arrived at the neces- 
sary stage of proficiency to undertake all classes of work. 

"The demand, then, for the thrower was great, 
and there was a certain class of work which could 
only be made with his assistance, and this gave him 

[249] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

an exaggerated idea of his own importance and caused 
him to be exorbitant in his demands, irregular in his 
attendance, and indifferent to the quality of his work. 
The largest trade being purely commercial, it became 
evident to manufacturers that some means had to be 
found to overcome this difficulty in order to produce 
the thousands of dozens of absolutely identical pieces 
that are required by trade; and it was clear that ma- 
chine work was far better adapted to achieve this result 
than man's, as any individuality would really be a 
defect in pieces which were all required to be absolutely 
alike. The consequence has been the rapid introduc- 
tion of machinery, and it was soon found that by a little 
thought and care in the arrangement of tools and 
molds, there was not a piece of ware the thrower made 
that could not be made off a machine, and, as a rule, 
made in such a way that even if it required turning, 
the work of the turner was much facilitated, the form 
of the piece approximating that of the finished article 
much more than the piece formed by the thrower. 

"To this end the potter and machinist directed their 
energies with such entire success that there are few 
earthenware potteries, except those dedicated to artis- 
tic as opposed to commercial production, through 
whose doors a thrower ever passes. The result is 
that every day there is less demand for throwers, and 
fewer serve their apprenticeship, and year by year the 
number will grow less, and this again constantly com- 
pels the manufacturers to seek fresh methods of making 
any pieces still in the hands of the throwers. That 
thrown and turned ware has many advantages must be 

[250] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

at once admitted. It has less contraction, has a better 
appearance, and is stronger than machine-made ware, 
and if only a few pieces are wanted, the thrower can 
at once make them instead of the manufacturer having 
to go through the costly process of modeling and 
mold-making ; but much as the decadence of throwing is 
to be regretted from the artistic point of view, it must 
be remembered that no trade can ever be dependent 
on the caprices of one class of workers, and it may be 
taken as an axiom that when any trade finds its de- 
velopment checked by the action of any one class of 
workers that class, sooner or later, will almost totally 
disappear from the trade, some other method of doing 
their work being evolved to overcome the difficulty." 
But if the passing of the thrower seems assured, the 
same is not true of the "turner." Turning is done on 
a lathe of practically the same type as that used in 
turning wood and metals, the workman using tools 
whose edges are shaped so as to make circular ribs 
or grooves according to the pattern of the piece. All 
this could be done with the ordinary tool by a skilful 
turner, but if a large quantity of similar pieces is to 
be made, much time is saved by making tools with 
specially shaped edges. By pressing the edge of such 
a tool against the surface of the revolving vessels for a 
moment, the turner can make an exact pattern and du- 
plicate it indefinitely. But even with such an imple- 
ment much skill is required to do good turning. The 
turner must know the exact amount of pressure to exert, 
and maintain that pressure uniformly. He must be 
able to determine when the clay is sufficiently dry and 

[351] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

firm to be worked, and yet not so dry that it will come 
away as dust instead of in the form of shavings. He 
must, in a word, be a skillled workman, capable of 
turning out perfect work with the ordinary flat tool, 
but using special tools for expediency. With these tools 
and by means of the various adjustments of his lathe, 
he is able to produce not only circular forms, but also 
oval ones, as well as wavy lines, and rows of figures, 
in a matter of seconds, which would require much more 
time to produce in any other way. 

Since the ware made on the thrower's wheel and 
turned in the lathe must be circular, or something ap- 
proaching it, it is obvious that for the manufacture of 
rectangular pieces some other method is necessary. 
There are several such methods, two of the more im- 
portant being known technically as "pressing" and 
"casting." In both these processes it is necessary 
to use molds of plaster, made in such a manner that 
the clay may be pressed or run into them, to take the 
form of the mold. For this purpose the mold for any 
particular piece may have to be made in several parts, 
held in place in some manner while the pressing or 
casting is being done, and removed separately when the 
piece is finished. This would not be necessary for 
a piece which is wider at the top than at the bottom, 
but for one that is much "undercut," as in the case 
of a pitcher, for example, a mold of at least two parts 
is necessary, and usually there are three. Two of 
these of equal size and shape form the sides of the ves- 
sel, while the third is used for the bottom. 

The first operation of the presser in making such a 

[252] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

pitcher is that of "batting" the piece of clay he is t: 
use for filling one section of the mold. He does this 
either with a large mallet, or with an implement very 
like a rolling-pin, flattening the clay to the thickness 
required for placing in the mold. For this flattening 
by mallet or roller the clay is laid upon a block of 
plaster of Paris and the piece of clay so flattened is 
known as the "bat." The presser places this bat 
in the mold, with the surface that has come in con- 
tact with the batter laid downward in the mold, and 
presses it firmly so that it fills every surface and crevice 
completely. The other half of the mold is treated 
in the same way, and the two are then joined, and 
fastened together with a strap passing around them. 
At the junction of the two sections in the mold, the work- 
man lays long narrow rolls of clay, working them with 
a sponge and with his fingers until the two sections 
are united firmly and the seam is entirely obliterated. 

Next, a bat of the proper size and thickness is made 
and pressed into the bottom mold, this being jointed 
to the two upper half-molds, and the seams effaced, 
thus completing the pitcher. The mold is then placed 
in a drying-stove, where the clay hardens and shrinks 
so that it may be removed from its plaster case with- 
out difficulty or danger of breaking. 

Meanwhile, another workman, or possibly the same 
presser, has made the handle for the pitcher by put- 
ting a lump of clay of the right size in one-half of the 
handle mold, and pressing the other half down upon 
it until all the superfluous clay is expressed. This is 
also placed in the drying-oven for a short time. 

[253] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

When the pitcher and its handle have reached the 
right stage of dryness they are removed from their 
molds and the handle fastened in position by moist- 
ening the places of contact with a little slip. If the 
piece is to be a perfect one after firing, both the handle 
and the body must be at exactly the same stage of 
dryness when fastened together, and just the right 
amount of slip must be applied, too much or too little 
causing defects. The piece is now ready for the final 
drying, and firing in the biscuit-oven, to be referred 
to a little later. 

Pieces that are made by "casting" are usually of 
such shape that they cannot be manipulated conveni- 
ently in the molds. In making such pieces, the different 
parts of the plaster mold are put in place and strapped 
firmly together. The carefully prepared clay slip is 
then poured into them until the cavities are filled, 
just as molten iron is poured into the molds at a 
foundry. The tendency of the plaster of the mold 
to absorb the water of the slip causes a thin layer of 
clay to be deposited against the sides, forming a shell 
the exact shape of the mold. The thickness can be 
regulated by the length of time that the slip is left 
in the mold. In case considerable thickness is wanted, 
more slip is poured in from time to time until the re- 
quired thickness is deposited, whereupon the residue 
is poured off, and the piece dried. In drying it shrinks 
away from the sides of the mold, facilitating its sub- 
sequent removal. 

Casting has the advantage of giving pieces of abso- 
lutely uniform thickness, and without restriction as to 

[ 2 54] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

shape. There is great contraction, however, and as 
pieces so made are very porous there is always danger 
of crazing in the glazing. 

In making pottery by casting, just as in pressing, 
most pieces are not made entire in the mold. Handles, 
spouts for teapots, rings for covers, etc., are made 
separately, and afterward fastened to the wares by 
men called "handlers," if they work on small pieces, 
or " stickers-up" if their work is on the larger pieces. 
Good " sticking-up " requires a thorough knowledge of 
clay ware, as well as deftness on the part of the 
workman. 

MACHINES THAT MAKE POTTERY 

As we have seen, the pottery-makers themselves 
are largely to blame for the introduction of certain 
kinds of machines that turned out earthenware much 
more quickly and economically than could be done 
by hand. This is not surprising in this age of ma- 
chinery. The truly surprising thing is that the manu- 
facturers waited so long before discovering that it 
was possible to substitute machinery for men. That 
ordinary pottery should pass through the stages of 
being "wedged" by hand, "batted" with a mallet 
or rolling-pin, or "pressed" slowly and laboriously 
into molds, seems incompatible with our ideas of 
modern progress in the mechanical arts. The potters 
awoke to a realization of this a little over a quarter of 
a century ago, at which time machinery for making 
commercial pottery began rapidly replacing hand- 
methods. 

[255] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

A few pages back we considered such machines as 
the blungers, mixing arks, and pug-mills for use 
in thoroughly mixing the clays ready for the actual 
process of molding into pottery. Without going into 
too greatly detailed description, we may consider for 
a moment some of the other machines that take up 
the actual process of pottery manufacture, after the 
clay leaves the pug-mill. 

The batting-machine naturally comes first in the 
order of use. In place of the block of plaster upon 
which the presser or plate-maker had to pound or 
roll his clay to the proper thickness for working, an 
automatic batting-machine is used, which performs the 
work in a small fraction of the time, and with mathe- 
matical accuracy. The essential parts of this machine 
are a revolving horizontal table on which the lump 
of clay to be batted is placed, and a tool which descends 
to the predetermined distance, pressing the clay out 
into a layer of the required thickness. When it reaches 
the point in its descent where the distance between it 
and the revolving bed represents the desired thickness 
of the bat, an automatic device causes the tool to rise 
to its original position, leaving the finished bat ready 
for the workman. With this machine any intelligent 
boy can do the work of two or three men working by 
hand. 

Machines for making such pieces as plates, cups, 
saucers, bowls, and similar pieces are called "jolleys." 
In the simplest form, such as the one used in plate- 
making, the jolley has a spindle which can be rotated 
horizontally, and to which the mold is attached. In 

[256] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

the case of an ordinary plate or saucer this mold 
would represent the face, or upper surface, of the dish, 
and when the bat is pressed upon it the upper surface 
of the dish is formed. This is then placed upon the 
revolving spindle, above which is the arm holding the 
tool for cutting the under surface. This tool is a metal 
blade, the edge of which represents the outline of one 
half the bottom surface of the plate. This blade is 
depressed by means of a handle, and as it descends 
it cuts off the clay, making a perfect surface and being 
set so that the lowest point to which it descends repre- 
sents the desired thickness of the dish. 

To run such a machine to its full capacity, the 
"jiggerer," as the machine workman is called, must 
have two or three boys as assistants. One of these, 
who runs the batting-macliine, takes a lump of clay, 
throws it on the plaster head of the batting machine, 
depresses the lever, and makes a bat of the required 
thickness. This he throws upon the surface of the 
mold with sufficient force to expel all air bubbles, and 
hands the mold with the clay attached to the jiggerer, 
who fastens it on the head of his machine and sets it 
revolving by pressing a lever. Moistening the palm of 
his hand, the jiggerer presses it firmly upon the whirl- 
ing clay, using sufficient force to cause it to fill the mold 
completely. If the piece is of somewhat large size he 
must use considerable force, to do which he presses 
one hand upon the other. He then cuts off the super- 
fluous clay on the edges, pulls down the cutting tool, 
dnd forms the bottom of the piece by steady pressure 
until the tool will descend no further. Then with 
vol. ix.— 17 [ 257 ] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

a few deft touches he removes any particles of clay 
that may have been left at the edge of the mold, re- 
moves the mold and the molded plate from the machine 
and hands them to a boy who takes them to the dry- 
ing-stove. The time required for modeling an or- 
dinary plate in this manner is about thirty seconds. 

In making small, hollow pieces on these machines, 
such as cups, bowls, or round sugar-bowls, the mold 
represents the outside of the piece, the inside being 
made with the tool. The batting process is dispensed 
with, the lump of clay being thrown directly into the 
mold and formed into the vessel by depressing the 
cutting-tool at once. In the case of "undercut" 
pieces — that is, where the opening at the top is smaller 
than some lower portion — the tool has to be made 
and set on a movable lever, or some similar device, 
so that it can cut out and fashion the wider portions of 
the piece, and still swing back far enough not to 
touch the narrower portions when it is removed. 

From this simple form of plate- or cup-making jolley, 
all manner of machines have been evolved for making 
deep and shallow ware, large and small. Some of these 
are automatic in action, practically dispensing with 
skilled assistants. As a rule the finer grades of work 
are not attempted on such machines; but such stock 
things as cups and bowls, and large pieces, such as 
wash-bowls, can be turned out with great rapidity. 
Machines for doing heavy work are found only in the 
larger potteries, as the mechanism is necessarily com- 
plicated, and their initial cost, and the cost of repairs, 
are correspondingly high. 

[258] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

After the pieces made with these machines are dried 
and hardened sufficiently to retain their shape, they 
are removed from the molds and are ready for firing 
in the biscuit ovens, unless some decoration in clay 
is to be added. If so, this is done while they are still 
in the moist state, and by one of half a dozen or more 
processes. Thus, the impression of small dies on the 
ware is frequently made by rollers having patterns 
cut on the edges, which form a continuous pattern 
when pressed on the ware. Such things as figures, 
flowers, or other raised designs are made in molds 
and stuck in place with slip. Facsimiles of lace or 
textile fabrics are sometimes made by dipping the 
fabric in slip and applying it to the vessel. During 
the firing process the fabric is burned away, leaving 
the impression on the vessel. This process, somewhat 
modified, is used also for reproducing leaves and other 
objects. 

Perforations in pieces are made either with hollow 
punches of special design, or with sharp knives. 
Where much cutting is to be done the workman must 
exercise great care, as each perforation naturally 
weakens the clay. This kind of work should not be 
confused with etching, or carving, on the clay, as such 
work is done when the ware is fairly dry. 

Colored effects and decorations are obtained in a 
great variety of ways before as well as after the piece 
is fired. Before firing this is sometimes done with 
colored clays, or by means of colored slips, or with 
combinations of the two. These colored slips may be 
blown through little tubes to form a great variety of 

[259] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

figures on the clay, or, if circular stripes or bands are 
wanted, the piece may be fastened in a lathe, and the 
bands of colored slip added quickly and evenly. Where 
the piece has been dipped in colored slip, striking effects 
can be obtained by cutting it away with a tool, exposing 
the color of the body of the ware beneath. Thus a very 
common pattern of fancy bowl, white on the inside 
and blue on the outside, with white bands encircling 
it, would be made by dipping the outside clay bowl in 
blue slip, and then turning off the blue slip in rings in 
a lathe. 

Another method of obtaining striking effects is with 
the etching- tool after the colored slip has been applied. 
The tool cuts away the slip, leaving the patterns in 
the original color of the ware beneath. Indeed, there 
are endless methods of producing color effects, each 
manufacturer using combinations and methods of his 
own. Some of these processes are slow and costly, 
while others, although effective, are simple and inex- 
pensive, as any one may discover by pricing such wares 
at a pottery store. 

FROM CLAY TO CHINA 

Thus far in our story the substance with which we 
have been dealing has retained its original form as 
clay, more or less plastic according to the amount of 
moisture it contains at any particular stage. But 
whether in the form of liquid slip, as the plastic mass 
coming from the kneading process of the pug-mill, 
or as the thoroughly dried dish so hard that it retains 

[260] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

its shape perfectly, the substance is still clay, capable 
of being transformed from one of these conditions 
to another, simply by moistening or drying as the case 
may be. But in the next step of pottery manufacture 
— the one that follows next after the molding, turn- 
ing, and coloring processes — the plastic substance, 
clay, is changed into an altogether different substance 
by the application of intense heat. It can be ground 
to impalpable fineness, blunged into what appears to 
be clay slip, and passed through the various processes 
through which it passed in its journey through the 
pottery works before being fired ; but it will have none 
of the characteristic plastic qualities of the original 
clay, nor can pottery of any kind be made from it, any 
more than can be done with powdered granite or marble. 
The explanation is that the heat has driven off the 
"water of combination" as the chemist calls it, and 
there is no known means of replacing it. This water 
of combination, it should be understood, is a thing 
quite apart from the water which is held in suspension 
in the plastic clay, and which may be driven off by 
drying. The water of combination is an integral part 
of the molecule of clay, and remains unchanged whether 
the clay is in a moist or dry state. No amount of man- 
ipulating in the machinery of the pottery affects it in 
any way until it is brought to a red heat in the biscuit 
oven. Then it frees itself from its clay associates, 
and no way is known of inducing it to take up its orig- 
inal relations again. Its leaving causes the body of 
the clay to shrink, pure clay having so much shrinkage 
that the potter finds it necessary to counteract the ten- 

[261] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

dency by some substance that does not have molecules 
containing water of combination. Such a substance 
is flint; and being very hard and very white, it makes 
an ideal addition to the pottery mixture. 

For firing, the ware is placed in fire-clay boxes 
called "saggers." These saggers may be of any shape, 
but the usual forms are either round or oval, saggers 
of the same size being piled one above another in the 
biscuit-ovens, resembling somewhat the tall piles of 
half-bushel measures of vegetables seen in the markets. 
The saggers are made of fire-clay and a mixture of 
ground-up biscuit- ware, saggers, and other scraps. 
They must be very strong and infusible, and able to 
withstand the repeated heating and cooling processes. 
The piles of saggers in the oven are known as " bungs.' ' 

Filling these saggers with ware and placing them 
properly in the ovens requires a good deal of skill and 
much hard labor, as when filled with such flat ware as 
plates, for example, each sagger weighs from forty to 
fifty pounds. The workman takes a sagger on his 
head into the oven, when the pile is higher than his 
head, climbs a ladder placed for the purpose, and 
carefully transfers his load to its place in the bung, 
being careful not to jar or disturb the ware in any 
way. 

Such flat dishes as plates, saucers, soup-plates, etc., 
are placed one above another in the sagger, from ten 
to twenty high, according to size. The bottom dish 
rests on a setter, which may be a thick plate made es- 
pecially for the purpose, or a suitable piece that has 
shown some defect after firing. Cups are placed edge 

[262] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

to edge one upon the other, to keep them straight; 
while large dishes of any depth, which are likely to 
become crooked, are bedded in sand. Pieces having 
covers, such as sugar-bowls, are fired with the covers 
in place.' If fired separately in different parts of the 
oven, the variation in heat might cause unequal con- 
traction so that they would no longer fit. 

Each sagger as it is placed in the bung forms a 
cover to the one just beneath. In some potteries sand 
is rubbed between the joints to make them air-tight, 
but probably a better method is to "wad" the saggers 
with clay, thin rolls of fire-clay being placed around the 
edge of the sagger so that the one next above it, press- 
ing upon the clay, makes the chamber air-tight. The 
ware in such air-tight saggers must be very dry, how- 
ever, as otherwise the steam generated and confined in 
the sagger would "mortar" the ware, which would be 
found as a shapeless lump of burnt clay when the sagger 
is opened. 

Where the pieces to be fired are of irregular shape, 
or are too deep to be placed one above another in the 
saggers, much waste space is left about them. The 
economical potter, however, is careful to see that all 
such spaces of any considerable size are utilized. In 
the deep dishes, such as large bowls, he places smaller 
dishes; while in other nooks and corners he places 
all manner of small clay objects. It is a very small 
space indeed that will not hold such small objects as the 
many-shaped insulators used by electricians. And as 
there are from twenty-five hundred to three thousand 
saggers in the ordinary-sized oven, it will be seen that 

[263] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

the number of small objects fired without extra cost 
may amount to several thousand at each firing. 

In this way the pottery manufacturer effects a very 
great saving, since firing is about the most expensive 
single item in the process of pottery-making. 

Firing consists in raising the temperature of the oven 
gradually and uniformly to a certain point, usually 
about 2,500° F. The degree of heat varies for different 
purposes, but even the very lowest is so high that it 
takes many hours of firing, and many tons of coal, 
to reach it in the great sixteen- or twenty-foot ovens. 
Furthermore, in ovens of that size the variation in 
temperature in different parts might be enough to "over- 
fire" and spoil ware in one part of the oven, while in 
another part the ware would be "under-fired," if the 
fireman were careless or ignorant, or if he had no way 
of ascertaining approximately the temperature in every 
part of his oven at all times. 

Of course where such high temperatures are at- 
tained the use of ordinary thermometers is out of the 
question, but the potters have discovered other means 
of determining the heat of the ovens which are exact 
enough for practical purposes. An experienced fire- 
man can tell a great deal about the oven temperature 
by the appearance of the heated interior; but even the 
most skilful workman does not trust to this test alone 
unless forced to do so by some accident. Most firemen 
make use of little rings of clay called "trials" for 
determining the temperature. These are placed in 
various parts of the oven, the usual method being to 
put them into saggers which have holes cut in one 

[264] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

side, the opening facing a "trial hole" in the oven. 
As the firing proceeds the fireman removes a ring 
through the trial hole from time to time by means of 
an iron rod, cooling it at once by throwing it into cold 
water. Knowing the amount of contraction caused 
by certain temperatures, the coloring effects, the con- 
dition of the fractured edge, etc., at the various stages, 
he is thus able to gage the temperature of his oven. 
And as the trials are placed in several different posi- 
tions in the oven he can ascertain easily by comparison 
whether his oven is being heated evenly. 

A more scientific method is to use specially prepared 
substances that melt at known temperatures. These 
are made in the form of cones for convenience, and 
arranged in a graduated series, each of its several cones 
requiring a different degree of heat for melting. The 
melting point of the most resistant one represents the 
necessary degree of heat for properly firing the ware. 
Such cones are entirely practical, but are more expensive 
than the trial rings, or trial pieces of clay of various 
kinds, and for this reason are not in general use for 
ordinary firing. 

In England a gage invented by Wedgwood some- 
thing like a century ago is extensively used. In this 
gage the property of heated clay to contract a definite 
amount at certain temperatures is taken advantage of. 
The gage is a piece of metal in which is a long groove, 
tapering from one end to the other, and marked off in 
degrees. Bits of clay that fit exactly into a definite 
point in this groove before it is placed in the oven are 
used. As the temperature is raised the clay bits slide 

[265] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

farther and farther along the tapering groove of the 
gage until their position indicates that the desired 
degree of heat has been reached. 

After the oven has reached the degree of heat re- 
quired it is allowed to cool slowly until it reaches a 
temperature low enough for the workmen to enter 
and remove the saggers. The slower the cooling proc- 
ess the less will be the breakage of ware and saggers, 
and the time of cooling ranges from two to three days. 
The ware is then ready for glazing, unless some form 
of "underglaze" decorating is to be done. 

There are several methods of applying this glaze, 
the preparation of which has been described a few 
pages back. The most common of these is by "im- 
mersion," which, as its name implies, consists in dipping 
the pieces of ware into a tank having the glaze material 
held in suspension in water. The density of this glaze 
must be determined very accurately if good results 
are to be expected. 

When a piece of ware is plunged into the glaze it 
absorbs a certain amount of moisture at once, leav- 
ing a uniform layer of the solid matter of the glaze 
deposited over every part of it. The time of the immer- 
sion, and the consistency of the glaze-mixture, will 
determine the thickness of the glaze, and this is most 
important in the final firing of the piece. Pieces of 
biscuit absorb the glaze in direct proportion to their 
thickness, the thicker the ware the greater the ab- 
sorption. All these things must be taken into consid- 
eration by the "dipper," as the man who immerses the 
ware is called. 

[266] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

The general principle of immersing in the glaze is the 
same for ware of all sizes and shapes, although the 
actual dipping process differs with various pieces. 
Deep dishes require somewhat different treatment from 
such flat pieces as plates, and while this difference is 
slight, it is enough to warrant confining a workman to 
dipping one class of ware, once he has become expert in 
doing it. 

In any of the dipping processes, however, the ringers 
are brought in contact with the piece as little as possible, 
as otherwise unglazed places corresponding to the fin- 
ger prints would be left. This difficulty is overcome 
by moving the fingers constantly during the immersion, 
and by the use of various mechanical devices, such 
as metal hooks, whose points of contact with the piece 
are very small. Thus the plate-dipper often uses a 
long iron hook shaped to fit the edge of the plate, and 
attached to his thumb with a strap. He hooks this over 
the edge of the plate, supporting the opposite edges 
with his fingers, and passes the plate through the glaze 
rapidly, taking just the amount of time that he knows 
by experience is sufficient for the plate to absorb the 
proper quantity of glaze. Then, with a dexterous jerk, 
he flings off the superfluous glaze, and the plate is ready 
for the final firing. 

Before going to the oven, however, the piece is in- 
spected by another set of workmen known as "re- 
passers." These men look the plate over carefully 
to see that there are no places where the glaze is too 
thick or too thin. If the dipper is a man highly skilled 
in his work the repassers will find very few such places. 

[267] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

But should they find any, they reinforce the thin spots 
with glaze applied with a brush, or cut off the excess 
with a thin, sharp knife. 

Another method of applying the glaze is by "sprin- 
ging," which is used for pieces that do not suck up the 
glaze readily, or on those whose interior surface is to 
be glazed a different color from the outside. In such 
pieces the outside is dipped in the ordinary way, the 
glaze for the inside being introduced by a spoon, 
or ladle, which is then run around so as to cover all 
the surface, the excess being poured out. 

Glazing by volatilization or "smearing," as it is 
called, is a process by which the glaze is applied while 
the ware is still in the biscuit-oven. In this process the 
saggers are either left open, or the glaze to be vola- 
tilized is placed in a cup in each sagger. As this vola- 
tilizes it combines with the silica in the ware, forming a 
coating over it. This method is used for pieces with 
sharp outlines which might otherwise be filled or 
rounded by the dipping process. So-called stone- 
ware is glazed by throwing salt into the oven when it 
is well heated, and as this volatilizes it combines with 
the silica in the ware to form the glaze. 

Very cheap ware is sometimes glazed by dusting 
dry powdered glaze over the ware while it is still damp 
enough to hold it. Only one firing is then required 
to finish the piece. Such ware is of very inferior 
quality, and the process is very hurtful to the work- 
men who breathe the air loaded with the fine particles 
of the glaze, some of which are of a very injurious 
composition. 

[268] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

The placing of the ware in the glaze-kiln, or "glost- 
oven,' , as the oven for firing the glaze is called, is a much 
more delicate operation than placing it in the biscuit- 
oven. In the biscuit-oven many dishes may be piled 
one above another, each resting on the one beneath, 
and coming in contact with it. But in the glaze-kiln, 
where the glaze becomes a sticky layer of molten glass 
covering every portion of the ware, this cannot be done, 
as every point of contact will show in the finished ware. 
If plates, for example, were piled together, as they are 
in biscuit-firing, they would be welded together into 
a solid mass. It is necessary, therefore, to support 
every piece of ware on just as few points of contact 
as possible, and have those points as small as prac- 
ticable. 

The ideal way of placing the ware would be to have it 
suspended in such a manner that no portion of it came 
in contact with anything. As this is obviously impos- 
sible, the potter must be content with some device 
that makes the necessary points of contact as few and as 
small as possible. By means of variously shaped 
bits of burnt clay, known as thimbles, spurs, stilts, 
saddles, etc., he arranges his ware so that the points 
of contact show very little in the finished ware — so 
little, indeed, that in the best pieces only the eye of an 
expert can detect them. To do this requires great 
ingenuity, especially as in doing so the utilization of 
every possible inch of space in the saggers, for econ- 
omy's sake, must be borne in mind. 

For pieces of unusual shape, or delicacy, the placer 
has often to devise supports of special form and con- 

[269] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

struction; but for standard pieces, such as plates, 
cups, or saucers, there are several well-known methods 
that economize both time and space. Thus, plates may 
be placed horizontally one above another in the sagger 
by the use of little pieces called "thimbles," three 
thimbles to each plate. The thimble is a little piece 
of fired clay shaped like a thimble, as the name implies, 
but having a little spur, or projection, on one side, 
which comes in contact with the edge and back of the 
plate it supports. Three of these are placed in the 
holes of the frame or ring made to receive them, the 
triangle thus formed being of exactly the right size 
so that a plate to be glazed rests against the little 
projections on the thimbles without touching anything 
else. Three more thimbles are then fitted into the 
first three, and another plate placed on them, and this 
process repeated until the stack is high enough to fill 
the sagger. A ring, with three projections that fit 
into the three upper thimbles, is then placed on the top, 
binding the whole firmly together. Plates so placed 
are said to be "dottled," and this is the method used 
in most factories for placing the best grade of ware. 

Another method is to use a combination of thimbles 
and saddles for supporting the plates vertically in the 
sagger. Saddles are long, triangular pieces of fired 
clay. Two of these are laid parallel in the bottom of 
the sagger at such a distance from each other that a 
plate placed vertically rests on their upturned edges 
without touching at any other point. A thimble is used 
at the top of each plate, making the third point of 
support, each thimble socketed into its neighbor to 

[270] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

form a line at the top that binds all the plates together. 
By this method of placing, two small marks are left 
on the edge of each plate where it comes in contact 
with the saddles, and a third mark where it touches 
the projection on the thimble. 

These are only two of the many methods of " plac- 
ing" ware whose shape permits of several pieces being 
placed in the same sagger. The very best results in 
glazing are obtained by placing each piece of ware in 
a sagger by itself, but of course only the most expensive 
ware is fired in this way, and even in such sets the flat 
pieces are fired together. 

Firing the glaze-kiln is a somewhat shorter process 
than that of firing the biscuit-oven, as a rule. The 
temperature is not raised to quite the same degree, 
as otherwise the body of the ware might be affected. 
The time required may be said roughly to be from 
sixteen to twenty-four hours, and the temperature 
attained about 1900 F. The quicker the oven can 
be brought to the required heat the better and brighter 
will be the glaze. 

DECORATING THE WARE 

We have seen that certain lands of decorations 
and coloring are done, while the ware is still in the 
clay state, by the use of colored clays and colored slips. 
But the two periods in the manufacture for doing 
most of the decorating are after the ware has been 
fired in the biscuit-oven before the glaze is applied, 
and after the final glazing has been done. The first 

[271] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

of these is called "underglaze" decorating, the second 
"overglaze." The underglaze decorating is the more 
permanent, and more generally used, while the over- 
glaze decorating has the advantage of lending itself 
to a wider range of color and design. 

The methods of underglaze decorating are as widely 
diversified as those of the art of picture-making. They 
range from the crude outlines drawn with a stick, such 
as those of the Arizona cliff-dweller's pottery, to works 
of art requiring fine brush-work, copper plates, and 
printing-presses. Indeed, the printing-press and en- 
graved plates have played almost as great a part in 
the production of cheap and beautiful pottery as they 
have in the production of cheap books. And as in 
the case of making books, they enable endless num- 
bers of the same elaborate designs to be made at very 
small cost. 

It should not be understood , however, that the 
printing-press of the potter has reached any such stage 
of development as that of the book-maker's press, 
in which a piece of paper is converted into a folded 
book, and duplicated at the rate of many thousand 
per hour. Such machines, or machines aiming in 
that direction, have been attempted with some degree 
of success, but the most practical machines at present 
are still in the stage of development corresponding 
to the earliest type of printing-press, where most of the 
work depended on manual dexterity. 

The first step in the process of china-printing is that 
of engraving the design upon a copper plate. This 
may be done with acids, or by means of steel tools. 

[272] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

With either process the engraving must be of sufficient 
depth to retain the requisite amount of color in trans- 
ferring to the ware. In using this plate the printer 
first places it on a steam-heated stove which keeps it 
at that temperature which allows the working of the 
colors to the best advantage. Then he cuts a piece 
of specially prepared tissue-paper, in size somewhat 
larger than the engraved design on the copper plate, 
and "sizes" it by brushing it over with a solution of 
soap and soda. He lays this aside for a moment while 
he smears his color over the engraved part of the plate, 
with a thin knife, afterward rubbing the color into 
every line of the design with a wooden rubber. Any 
excess of color is removed with the knife, and the sur- 
face of the plate finally cleaned with a corduroy boss. 
Next he places the piece of wet paper over the color- 
filled engraving, and transfers the plate to the press. 

The press is composed simply of two iron cylinders, 
set horizontally and parallel, with a bed or table that 
runs back and forth between them. The upper cylin- 
der is covered with several layers of soft cloth. The 
printer places the copper plate on the bed of the press, 
pulls the lever that makes the cylinders revolve, and 
runs the table between them. As the table passes for- 
ward the padded upper cylinder presses the paper firmly 
against the copper plate, causing it to take up every par- 
ticle of color from the grooves of the engraving beneath. 
The pressure against the hot plate also dries the paper 
completely, so that it may be lifted from the copper 
surface, bringing the color with it. It may then be 
transferred to the ware by simply pressing it upon 

VOL. IX. — 18 [ 2 73] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

the surface and rubbing it thoroughly, first with a soft 
cloth, and then with a rubber dipped in soap if the 
surface of the dish is level, or with a brush if uneven. 
The ware absorbs the color almost immediately, and 
the paper may then be washed off without danger of 
injuring the pattern beneath. If the ware is very hard, 
and consequently somewhat less absorbent, this wash- 
ing-ofl process is delayed a few hours, after which the 
dish is sent to an oven where every particle of moisture 
and oil from the color is driven off. It is then ready 
for glazing. 

The process of printing just described is the sim- 
plest, but also one of the most useful, used in the 
manufacture of pottery on a large scale. There are 
many modifications of it, such as having the figures 
engraved on cylinders which on revolving print the 
figures in succession, but the general principle is the 
same as with the flat process. 

This underglaze method of printing colored designs 
is frequently combined with hand-painting, and in 
this manner elaborate color schemes may be used, 
though the number is still restricted to those that will 
withstand the heat of the glaze-kiln. In this combina- 
tion process the designs may be printed simply in out- 
line, the figures being filled in with brushes. 

Dishes of circular form may be striped with colors 
by means of small pencils or brushes, the workman 
using a small turntable on which he centers the piece 
accurately. Stripes can then be placed uniformly and 
quickly by holding the brush steadily in one position. 

The limitations placed upon underglaze decorations, 

[274] 



THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

on account of the action of the glaze-firing that follows, 
are practically eliminated in the process of overglaze 
decoration. The degree of heat necessary to fix the 
colors applied over the glaze is much less than that of 
the glaze-kiln, and the effect upon the colors very 
slight, and so well understood, that the decorator has 
practically unlimited scope both as to color scheme 
and design. Real works of art, comparing favorably 
with those painted on canvas, with every degree of 
delicacy of tint, have been made, and are still being 
made, in great numbers, on china ware. The colors 
are more permanently fixed than those on canvas, or 
any other material — in fact, are practically inde- 
structible except by breakage of the ware. With dishes 
in daily use, to be sure, the colors do eventually lose 
their brilliancy, and finally wear off; but this is due 
solely to constant and hard usage. Potters, however, 
prefer the underglaze decoration as a rule, claiming 
that the depth of tone in pieces thus painted more 
than offsets the variety of colors. But they find a com- 
bination of the two processes very useful, particularly 
in expensive pieces where the underglaze design has 
not come out well in all places. Where such defects 
are found the pieces can be touched up after the glost- 
firing, fired in the enamel kiln, and made perfect. 

The metals supply most of the colors used in china 
decoration, although there are some earths used for 
certain purposes. Not all the metallic colors, however, 
will withstand the heat of the glost-oven; and such 
colors can only be used for overglaze decoration. 
Gold and copper give two such colors. The gold is 

[275] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

used to produce rose and purples. Copper makes a 
green, the various shades being produced by the addi- 
tion of blue or yellow. Red is made from iron oxide, 
brown from iron chromate, blue from cobalt, white 
from tin, and yellow from antimony. Besides these 
there are great numbers of fundamental-color combi- 
nations used, so that the china-painter has almost as 
wide a range in his choice of pigments as the artist 
who works on canvas. 



[276] 



XI 

GLASS AND GLASS-MAKING 

M /T| ^HE making of glass originated in fairyland," 
I says a learned historian of art — which is 
"*" a graceful way of admitting that the origin 
of glass-making is unknown. But certainly this val- 
uable discovery was made at the very dawn of civili- 
zation. We cannot point to a definite " glass age" 
as we can to a "stone age" or a " bronze age"; but 
considering the manifold uses of glass we may be in- 
clined to agree with the enthusiast who maintains that 
the "glass age" is commensurate with civilization; 
that without glass, indeed, there would be no advanced 
modern civilization. 

At the present time it can be truthfully said that our 
civilization is largely dependent upon the single form 
of glass used for house-lighting. There could be no 
great northern cities like New York, London, or 
Berlin, without window panes. But the part played 
by glass in other forms as an aid to science and mechan- 
ics has been quite as important as in the field of light- 
ing. It was the glass prism that enabled Newton to 
discover the composition of light, and develop the 
science of optics. Without this same prism the spec- 
troscope would never have been invented — that mar- 
velous instrument which discovers a substance millions 

[277] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

of miles away in the sun, even before the same sub- 
stance is found on the earth, and helps in a hundred 
equally wonderful ways to make possible the modern 
science of physics. In the form of lenses, glass has 
enabled men to solve some of the riddles of the firma- 
ment — to detect a sun-spot and predict with some cer- 
tainty a famine in India from its effects, or to foretell 
the coming of a comet or an eclipse. The same lenses, 
combined somewhat differently in the form of the com- 
pound microscope, throw open to man that other world, 
whose minute inhabitants influence the destinies of 
man and races much more than all the savage beasts 
and savage men have done throughout the ages. 

Scarcely less in importance are the revolutionary 
effects of glass when applied as man's direct helper 
in the form of spectacles. Imagine for a moment 
what would become of this reading, print-devouring 
world to-day, without glass. Abolish lenses, and a 
large proportion of men and women over fifty years of 
age would be unable to read ordinary books, news- 
papers, and correspondence. Another vast army of 
persons who suffer from astigmatism would be con- 
demned either to perpetual headaches, or to abandon 
reading and writing after the age of thirty or there- 
abouts. While still another army of children who 
suffer from congenital optical defects, that even in 
childhood must be corrected by glasses, would never 
be able to learn to read and write at all. 

In the discovery of electricity and in nearly every 
phase of the development of electrical science, glass 
has played an important part. For years the only 

[278] 



GLASS AND GLASS-MAKING 

known method of generating electricity in any quantity 
was by means of rubbed glass; and when this elec- 
tricity had been generated, glass was the substance 
that made possible its isolation and distribution. 
There would be no Edison incandescent light to-day; 
no wonderful Hewitt mercury- vapor light, and no 
X-ray, but for glass. 

These are only a few of the more important develop- 
ments that glass has made possible; and all things 
considered, then, it is little wonder that glass has been 
looked upon as a gift of the fairies. 

But if fairies are responsible for the secret of glass- 
making, to whom was this secret first imparted? 

Pliny says that some Phoenician merchants were the 
favored ones. According to his story a band of these 
merchants having landed on the sandy bank of the 
river Belus, in Palestine, to prepare a meal, and being 
unable to secure stones for supporting their cook- 
ing-pots, used blocks of niter taken from the cargo 
of their boats. The heat of the fire caused a fusing of 
the niter and the sand, which resulted in the produc- 
tion of glass. 

Josephus credits the Children of Israel with the 
discovery of glass in a more spectacular, if quite as 
accidental, manner. Some Israelites, he says , once set 
fire to a thick forest that happened to be situated on a 
hillside of sand heavily charged with niter. The in- 
tense heat of the burning forest caused the niter and 
sand to fuse and run down in streams of molten glass, 
which hardened in pools at the foot of the hill. Ob- 
serving this wonderful phenomenon the Israelites set 

[ 2 79] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

about fathoming the secret, and, with persistence 
characteristic of their race, succeeded. 

But cold modern science points out that glass could not 
have been formed by either of these fantastic processes. 
Neither the open fire of the Phoenicians nor the forest 
fire of the Israelites would have produced sufficient heat 
to fuse the materials into glass, even if they had been 
present in the earth. Furthermore, the archaeologist 
delving into the sacred vaults of ancient Egypt, brings 
forth pieces of glass that were in existence hundreds, 
perhaps thousands, of years before the time of the Phoe- 
nician merchants of Pliny or the Israelites of Josephus. 
And, as if in anticipation of some dispute as to the ques- 
tion of their antiquity*, some of these pieces of glass in 
the forms of beads worn by a princess of an ancient 
dynasty have the name of the royal wearer engraved 
on each bead. It is certain that glass was in use in 
Egypt six thousand years ago, and in Babylonia even 
before that, but further than this it is all a matter of 
conjecture. As to the manner of its discovery, the 
most probable conjecture is that it was the result of 
some accident in the making of brick or pottery, of 
which art both the Egyptians and Babylonians were 
masters. 

Such articles as glass beads and ornaments, and 
very probably certain useful utensils, were made from 
glass long before window glass was introduced. By 
the time of the Greeks and Romans, glass-work of all 
kinds, some of it extremely delicate and beautiful, 
was in common use ; and it is by no means certain that 
looking-glasses and window panes were not invented 

[280] 



GLASS AND GLASS-MAKING 

even at this early period. The glass mirror is supposed 
to be a comparatively modern invention, but it is quite 
possible that such objects were known to the ancier^s 
and then forgotten during the retrogressive days of the 
Dark Age?. 

In the case of window glass this very thing seems 
to have occurred. For years the question of the an- 
tiquity of the window pane was a mooted one between 
scientists and antiquaries. "Suddenly antiquity her- 
self, tired doubtless of a discussion that threatened 
her own honor." says Sauzey. "decided the question 
by proving that she possessed window glass. And, 
indeed, the researches near Pompeii have brought to 
light panes of glass which have remained fastened 
to their frames more than seventeen hundred ye 2:5 
under ashes 

A DOUBTFCT ROMAN TRADITION" 

This discover}- confirms the belief that the Romans 
had become skilful ^lass-workers even at a verv earlv 
period. Indeed, judging from some of the Roman tale s 
the artisans were not onlv familiar with ordinarv ^lass- 
working, but were attempting to discover a process 
whereby glass could be made malleable — a desidera- 
tum that is still vainlv sought. One of these s::r 
tells of a workman who succeeded in solving the prob- 
lem, with dire consequences to himself when he ex- 
hibited his discover}' to the Emperor Tiberius. 

'There was once an artist who made vessels :: such 
firmness that you could no more break them than 
gold or silver." runs the story "This person, having 

[2S1'] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

made a cup of the finest crystal, and such a one as 
he thought worthy none but Caesar, got admission 
with his present. The beauty of the gift and the hand 
of the workman were highly commended, and the zeal 
of the donor kindly received. When the man, that 
he might change the admiration of the court into as- 
tonishment and ingratiate himself still more into favor 
of the emperor, begged the cup out of Caesar's hand 
and dashed it against the pavement with such vehe- 
mence that the most solid and constant metal could not 
escape unhurt, Caesar was both surprised and hurt 
at the action; but the other, snatching the cup from 
the ground, which was not broken but only a little 
bulged as if the substance of metal had assumed the like- 
ness of glass, drew a hammer out of his bosom and 
very dexterously beat out the bruise, as if he had been 
hammering a brass kettle. And now the fellow was 
wrapt in the third heaven, having, as he imagined, 
got the friendship of Caesar and the admiration of 
all the world; but it happened quite contrary to his 
expectations. For Caesar asking him if anyone knew 
how to make glass malleable besides himself, and he 
answering in the negative, the emperor commanded 
his head to be struck off; for, said he, 'if this art be 
once propagated, gold and silver will be no more 
valuable than dirt.'" 

It seems incredible that the use of glass for window 
panes should have been forgotten once it had been 
discovered; yet this appears to have occurred during 
the Dark Ages. Window glass, which ' ' lengthens life by 
introducing light into dwellings," entirely disappeared 

[282] 



GLASS AND GLASS-MAKING 

during those centuries when so very many of the es- 
sentials of progress, to say nothing of comfort, were 
forgotten. In the place of glass, primitive wooden 
shutters were used in the poorer class of dwellings; 
while in the better class, transparent stones, oiled paper, 
and skins were made to take the place of glazing. 

Even as late as the fifteenth century panes of win- 
dow glass were seen only in the dwellings of the wealthy. 
Among the records of the brilliant court of the dukes of 
Burgundy is an order, dated 1467, which calls for 
"twenty pieces of wood to make frames for paper, 
serving as chamber windows." And even a century 
later, glass windows were so much of a luxury and so 
expensive that we find the steward of the Duke of North- 
umberland ordering that the lights of glass in the castle 
be "taken out and put in safety when his Grace leaves. 
And if at any time his Grace or others should live at 
any of the said places, they can be put in again without 
much expense ; whilst as it is at present, the destruction 
would be very costly, and would demand great repairs." 

By the eighteenth century, window glass had be- 
come common enough so that even the dwellings of 
people in moderate circumstances were fitted with 
small panes — small indeed, and so unevenly made that 
objects seen through them were distorted into fan- 
tastic shapes — but nevertheless light-giving window 
panes. Small panes of good quality were obtainable 
at fabulous cost, to be sure, but it was not until late 
in the nineteenth century that plate glass in great sheets 
was manufactured, and brought within the reach 
of the generality of people. 

[283] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 



THE COMPOSITION OF GLASS 

As is well known, silica is the chief component of 
glass, and the mixture of this substance with other 
substances in certain proportions determines the kind 
of glass produced. "Potash or soda and lime 
are mixed with the silica to obtain window or plate 
glass," says Cochin; "add oxide of iron and you have 
bottle glass; substitute oxide of lead and you obtain 
crystal; replace by oxide of tin and you produce enamel. 
The union of the fusible bases, lime, alumina, mag- 
nesia, produce infusible compounds; but combined 
with fusible and infusible bases, the silicic acid forms 
multiple silicates which melt very readily. Plate glass 
is precisely one of these mixtures of three elements. 
It is composed of silica, soda, and lime, — in the pro- 
portion of silica 73, soda 12, and lime 15 parts. 

" Silica exists everywhere. Rock-crystal, sandstone, 
sand, flint, are composed of silica; it is also found 
in the ashes of plants, volcanic streams, and mineral 
springs. Sugar resembles glass, and this likeness is 
not deceptive. Melt the ashes of sugar-cane, and you 
have glass; for with the silica they contain both potash 
and lime. 

" Calcareous substances compose perhaps one-half 
the crust of the globe. Lime is in our bones; it is also 
in vegetables and straw, in the human skeleton and 
common earth; it is found everywhere — even more 
widely distributed than silica. 

"Soda also is found in nature. It has long been 

[284] 



GLASS AND GLASS-MAKING 

obtained by combustion of certain marine plants; 
in the present day it is produced very easily by artifi- 
cial means. Potash may be employed instead of soda; 
it is not less common and widely known; it exists in 
all ashes. 

"Here then we have the key to all those profound 
mysteries of Murano, Bohemia, and St. Gobain. A 
mirror is a valuable object produced from the commonest 
materials. To assist the memory, let me thus sum up 
the preceding remarks. When warming your feet, 
if you look at yourself in the mirror, remember that 
the mirror which adorns your mantelpiece can be 
manufactured by the help of that same mantelpiece 
and fireplace beneath: the stones furnish the silica, 
the ashes the potash, the marble the lime, and the fire 
is the only mysterious agent required for the trans- 
formation. 'Glass/ according to the old saying, 'is 
the offspring of fire.' " 

The predominating silicate used frequently deter- 
mines the name of the product. The terms "soda 
glass," "lime glass," etc., indicate that the soda or 
lime silicates predominate over the other silicates 
present in a particular glass. Most of the ancient 
glass was soda glass, but the later Venetian glass 
contained potassium and calcium in considerable 
quantities. Bohemian glass contains the silicates 
of potassium and calcium. Flint glass is a mixture 
of the silicates of potassium and lead. Bottle glass 
is usually a mixture of the silicates of calcium, alumi- 
num, and sodium. 

The different silicates impart certain definite qualities 

[285] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

to the glass. For example, sodium silicate gives the 
glass a greenish tint; potassium silicate adds to the 
brilliancy and fusibility of the glass; and lead silicate 
increases the ductility, as well as the fusibility and 
brilliancy of the product. An excess of lime renders 
the glass too brittle for practical purposes. 

Since sand is the principal source of the silica used 
in glass-making, it is this substance which comes in for 
closest scrutiny and most careful examination in the 
preliminary preparations of glass-making. Generally 
speaking, the quality of the sand determines the quality 
of the product, and as all sand contains many injurious 
impurities, a course of preliminary preparation and puri- 
fication is necessary before it is used. This preparation 
consists of the various processes of washing, burning, and 
sifting. In the process of washing, the heavier grains 
of pure sand settle to the bottom, while many of the 
lighter impurities float at the surface where they may 
be skimmed off. The burning removes the moisture 
and destroys whatever organic matter may be clinging 
to the sand grains, while the final process of sifting 
through copper gauze reduces the grains to uniform 
size, and removes, besides, the impurities still further. 

By far the most troublesome impurity found in sand 
— one that can be neither sifted, burned, nor washed 
out — is iron. Indeed, this substance is so troublesome 
that sands containing large quantities of iron are not 
suitable for glass-making, and the value of any sand 
is determined largely by the amount of this impurity 
it contains. 

One reason for the large amount of inferior glass 

[286] 



GLASS AND GLASS-MAKING 

manufactured in former years was the fact that so 
little care was taken in properly apportioning the dif- 
ferent ingredients, the mixing being largely a matter 
of guess-work. But in the modern glass-factory this 
haphazard method has entirely disappeared. The ex- 
act chemical constituents of each ingredient are deter- 
mined by analysis, and the proportions adjusted to a 
nicety, with the result that there is now a great uniform- 
ity in the product. 

As we have seen, when the various ingredients are 
mixed together and brought to a certain temperature, 
liquid glass results, — a sirupy substance resembling 
very thick molasses. Pouring this liquid upon some 
flat surface in a thin layer and allowing it to cool, 
would seem to be the easiest and most natural method 
of making such flat sheets as window glass. And, 
indeed, such a method is the one now used for making 
the superior quality of window glass, or plate glass. 
This is not the method, however, by which glass of 
inferior quality is manufactured. Ordinary window 
glass, for example, is blown first into hollow cylinders, 
then smoothed and flattened out. This process is a 
much more picturesque one than that used in making 
plate glass, although the product is greatly inferior. 

THE PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING WINDOW GLASS 

The mixture of soda, lime, and silica that is to be 
melted and transformed into glass is technically known 
as the " batch." The melting and transforming processes 
are slow and tedious ones consuming many hours, and 

[287] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

requiring great skill and judgment on the part of the 
master-melter. As a first stage of the process the 
melting-pots — " monkey pots," as they are called — 
are filled with the batch and heated until the contents 
melt. This requires several hours, and when accom- 
plished the shrunken bulk is increased with fresh 
shoveling of sand, and this melted in turn, until the 
pots are almost full of the liquid. As a finishing 
touch a small shoveling of "cullet," or broken glass, is 
thrown in and melted — a dash of flavoring to the brew, 
so to speak. 

All this time the master-melter has been crowding 
his fires to their limit, meanwhile keeping a watchful 
eye on the condition of the melting mass. Fourteen, 
sixteen, even twenty or more hours he must wait be- 
fore the liquid attains the right consistency. Then 
gradually the fires are lowered, and the temperature 
of the molten glass reduced until it is a little thicker 
than thick molasses — the consistency of tar on a hot day 
— which is the ideal condition for manipulation by the 
blowers. This finishes the work of the master-melter. 
Now different sets of trained workmen take charge of 
the contents of the monkey pots. 

The first of these is the gatherer, who dips out a 
certain quantity of the hot, gummy glass on the end 
of the long blowpipes. The position of this workman 
is a most trying one, as he must be constantly in close 
proximity to the blistering heat of the furnaces. To 
protect himself he wears a kind of shield or mask held 
in his teeth in front of his face. With hands protected 
by coarse gloves, he dips the end of the blowpipe into 

[288] 




GATHERING GLASS. 



The dark, pear-shaped mass which the workman is holding up is molten glass 
which he has just taken from the melting pot on the end of the blow-pipe. 



GLASS AND GLASS-MAKING 

the pot, skilfully turning and twisting it, and bringing 
out a mass, ranging in weight from twenty to forty 
pounds, clinging to the end, which represents a future 
pane of glass of definite size and thickness. This he 
twists and turns in an iron mold until it assumes a per- 
fect pear shape, passing it on at once to the blower — 
the master- workman of the establishment, whose task 
is at once picturesque and laborious. 

Skill alone, which on the one hand is absolutely 
essential, is not the only requirement in the make-up 
of a master glass-blower. Obviously the man who is 
to swing and turn a forty-pound mass at the end of an 
iron rod continuously for many minutes, exhausting 
himself still further meanwhile by repeatedly blowing 
quantities of air into the mass, not pausing until a great, 
hollow cylinder is produced, must have muscle and en- 
durance far above the average. For this reason good 
blowers are almost always in demand. 

In blowing these long cylinders, the workmen stand 
over deep pits dug in the floor of the room. ' ' The work- 
man at first blows lightly," says M. Peligot, "drawing 
out the vitreous mass a little, so as to give it the form 
of a pear; he balances his rod, then raises it so as 
to gather the glass. He afterward blows harder at 
short intervals, and gives it a movement backward and 
forward like the clapper of a bell, so as to strengthen 
the pear, which assumes a cylindrical form. He raises 
it rapidly over his head, then gives it a complete and 
rapid rotary movement, in order to lengthen it, while 
giving it an equal thickness in every part. 

"When the cylinder is made, the blower brings it 
vol. ix. — 19 [ 289 ] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

back to the open furnace so as to soften the end. When 
it is sufficiently hot it is pierced with an open point. 
By the balancing movement* this opening is increased ; 
the glass is pared with a sort of wooden plate; the 
edges separate and the top of the cylinder disappears. 
"When the cylinder has become firm, it is placed 
on a wooden rest. The end of the pipe is touched 
with a cold rod; it separates immediately from the 
cylinder, which has already lost its bullion point, 
when a thread of hot glass is wound around it, 
and the part thus heated is touched with a cold 
iron rod. Thus we have now on the rest a cylinder 
open at each end. It is opened by passing a red-hot 
iron rod down the interior in a straight line ; one of the 
heated extremities being wetted with the finger, the 
glass bursts open. The same result may be obtained 
by using a diamond attached to a long handle, which 
is passed down the interior of the cylinder by the side 
of a wooden ruler. This method gives a straighter 
cut, and consequently involves less loss." 

Each of these cylinders is to form a perfectly flat 
pane of glass, for which purpose it must be heated in 
the flattening-oven. In this oven it is placed on a 
flat slab, which is covered with some such substance 
as gypsum to present adhesion. The natural effect of 
the heat is to cause the cylinder to unroll, a workman 
assisting this process by gentle pressure with a pole. 
When it has become completely flattened the ovens 
are hermetically sealed, and the annealing process, 
which will be explained in a moment, begins. 

[290] 




GLASS-BLOWING. 

in 1 a h moTd rkman ** bl ° Wing * §laS& b ° ttle ° f P redet ermined size and shape 



GLASS AND GLASS-MAKING 



PLATE-GLASS MAKING 

In the process of making plate glass, the last vestige 
of picturesqueness, as seen in the older glass-blowing 
establishments, is removed. Here there is no use for 
the sturdy gatherer protecting his face with the mask 
held in his teeth, nor for the muscular blower. Science 
and mechanics have found better substitutes for brawn 
and muscle in the form of machinery; and, as in so 
many other cases, produce a superior product to that 
made by manual labor. 

Plate-glass making is simply a kind of casting, very 
similar to the casting of ordinary metals. The glass 
is first melted and then poured upon a flat surface, 
rolled to a certain thickness and allowed to cool. 
When cool it is ground and polished. 

Naturally, the materials for making plate glass must 
be carefully selected. Only the finest quality of white 
quartzose sand is used, mixed with such other sub- 
stances as carbonate of soda, slaked lime, manganese 
peroxide, and "cullet" in definite proportions. When 
these are melted and brought to the proper consist- 
ency, the molten mass is poured at once upon the mold- 
ing-plate, as the casting- table is called. For some of 
the coarser kinds of plate glass, where translucency 
rather than transparency is desired, the liquid is la- 
dled out in large malleable iron ladles. But by this 
process air bubbles are introduced, rendering the glass 
unfit for polishing. 

The casting-table is a thick, cast-iron plate, over 

[291] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

which is suspended a heavy iron roller, so arranged 
that it can be set at any desired distance above the 
table-plate. When the molten glass is poured upon 
the table, it is rolled to the proper thickness and dis- 
tributed evenly, by passing this roller over it — just as 
a baker uses a rolling-pin for flattening his dough. 
In this case, however, the roller is worked by machinery. 

The moment the rolling is completed, the plate is 
transferred to the annealing-oven. From this it 
emerges as " rough plate" ready for grinding and pol- 
ishing. This is done by cementing the plate to a huge 
revolving table by means of plaster of Paris, and then 
grinding it, first with coarse emery paper, and then 
gradually with finer powder until the surface is even 
and smooth. The final polish is then given it, either 
by hand or by mechanical rubbers made of felt and 
moistened with a solution of peroxide of iron. These 
various processes of grinding and polishing reduce 
the original thickness of the plate by about forty 
per cent. 

The most vital and important part of glass-making, 
next to the actual fusing of the metals, is the annealing. 
This is simply a process of slow cooling after the glass 
has been molded into shape — a tempering process, 
like the tempering of steel. If allowed to cool in the 
open air at the ordinary temperatures, the pores at 
the surface of the glass would close more quickly than 
those deeper in, and a brittle, fragile product would 
result. To avoid this, ovens with gradually dimin- 
ishing temperatures are used, the cooling or annealing 
process sometimes occupying several weeks. 

[292] 



GLASS AND GLASS-MAKING 

The ordinary annealing-oven is so arranged with 
draughts of hot and cold air that the temperature can 
be maintained indefinitely at any desired degree, or 
cooled gradually to that of the surrounding atmos- 
phere. There is another and more recent type of 
oven, however, known as the "lehr," made in the form 
of a tunnel some two hundred feet in length. The 
heating of this long tunnel is done mostly at one end, 
the temperature diminishing gradually and uniformly 
toward the other end. Running the length of this is 
an endless-chain arrangement, on which the plates 
are passed from the heated extremity to the cooler one, 
being timed so that a single passage through the lehr com- 
pletes the annealing. In such ovens, which are becom- 
ing rapidly popular, particularly in America, the time 
required for annealing is reduced from days to hours. 

Aside from window glass, and coarse bottle glass, 
glass used for most purposes is flint glass. French 
" crystal" is the same as English flint, and this glass 
is distinguished by its weight and brilliancy. Cut 
glass, optical glass, and all the best blown and pressed 
glassware for houshold use is of this material. 

In working this glass, all three methods of working — 
blowing, pressing, and molding — are used. Cut glass 
is first blown roughly into the desired shape in the open 
air, and then subjected to the cutting process. It could be 
cut after being molded instead of blown, but such glass 
lacks something of the brilliant luster of glass blown in 
the air. The cutting is done on grindstones moistened 
by streams of wet sand, and by emery wheels, the 
finest polish being given by putty powder. 

[ 2 93] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

Pressed glass, which, like cut glass, is a highly de- 
veloped American product, is made by pressing the 
molten glass in molds. It is a form of casting, and can 
be done so cheaply that it has become very popular. 
The shapes and patterns can be made closely to imi- 
tate cut glass — lacking something, however, of the 
sharpness of angles of the genuine article. 

A recent innovation in glass-making is the now famil- 
iar " wire-glass" used for skylights, roofs, and en- 
trances where translucency and strength are desired 
rather than transparency. It can also be made prac- 
tically transparent and as such is now much employed 
in the windows of office buildings, warehouses and fac- 
tories. In such glass a strong wire netting is incor- 
porated in the glass. This wire prevents the falling 
of huge fragments of glass when the pane is fractured, 
as is frequently the case with plate glass. It acts ad- 
mirably also as a fire-screen, the wire holding the glass 
in position even when heated sufficiently to become 
plastic. This glass was patented by Frank Schuman, 
an American, in 1892; and since that time it has grown 
steadily in popularity. 



[294] 




GLASS-CUTTING. 



The cutting is done on an emery wheel or on a grindstone, to which sand, 
emery-powder, or some similar abrasive is applied. 



I 



xn 

GEMS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 

F you will escape the evil effects of drunken- 
ness, be preserved from hailstones and locusts, 
sleep well, and not be troubled by evil spirits of 
witches," says the medieval sage, " suspend an amethyst 
bead on a hair from a baboon and wear it at the neck." 
There was a time when many people believed such 
things as this. We of the enlightened twentieth cen- 
tury do not. And yet, much as we should like to deny 
it, there are persons even to-day who have not quite 
escaped the Dark-Age superstition — the superstition 
handed down from Egypt, through Greece and Rome 
— that there are "lucky" and " unlucky" gem stones. 
What real difference is there, after all, between the 
half -spoken belief that the opal is an " unlucky" stone, 
and the sage's statement that the amethyst is a "lucky" 
one, except in the matter of specific wording as to just 
what evils are to be averted in the one case, as against 
a general statement in the other? Most of us, to be 
sure, do not believe in the general or the specific state- 
ment any more than we believe that it really matters 
whether we see the new moon over our right or our 
left shoulder. Yet there are persons who still prefer 
to catch the first glimpse of the new crescent "over the 
sword arm"; and popular prejudice against the opal 

[295] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

is still sufficient to deprive that gem of a popularity 
that is warranted by its beauty and pleasing qualities. 

A few years ago a financier who had suffered great 
business reverses, as well as deaths in his family, 
brought his "opal" ring to a jeweler and offered to 
sell it, having become convinced that wearing the 
ring wit»h its unlucky stone was the cause of his mis- 
fortunes. The jeweler, after examining the ring, 
smilingly informed the stricken financier that the stone 
was not an opal, but a star-stone — and not supposed 
to be unlucky at all. 

Fully to understand how deeply rooted an inheritance 
is any superstition about gems, it must be remembered 
that for ages and ages, from the most remote periods 
in history until well into the middle of the present era, 
gems were valued quite as much for their occult powers 
as for their beauty. The amethyst, as we have seen, 
was believed to be a lucky talisman. The chrysolite 
and the topaz possessed the power of " cooling boil- 
ing water, and quieting angry passions." If placed in 
a vessel containing poison the gem lost its luster, but its 
brilliancy was unimpaired if no poison were present. 
It may be surmised that chrysolite and topaz were 
favorite gems with certain unpopular persons in olden 
times. 

But after all it was unnecessary to take the trouble 
to test suspected concoctions with a topaz if one were 
wearing a ruby or a diamond, as these gems protected 
the wearer against all poisons. Yet the diamond it- 
self was thought to be a deadly poison. Benvenuto 
Cellini tells in all seriousness of an attempt to poison 

[296] 



GEMS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 

him by placing diamond dust in his salad. Fortu- 
nately, he says, the "gem" from which the powder 
was made was a spurious one, and so he suffered no 
evil effects. 

Besides counteracting the effects of poisons the 
diamond possessed many other magic powers. It 
deprived the lodestone of its magnetism, and had mar- 
velous power against lightning — merely touching the 
corner-stone of a building with a diamond insured the 
structure against Jove's destructive bolts. If held in 
the mouth it caused the teeth to drop out ; but if worn 
on the finger it engendered courage, virtue, and mag- 
nanimity in the wearer. It was a good partisan in 
case of lawsuits, influencing both judge and jury in the 
wearer's favor. In this last connection it would seem 
that the diamond has not entirely lost its power. 

Some of these qualities were shared by the ruby, 
which possessed the additional power of warning its 
wearer of impending danger by turning black. For 
detecting false witnesses an emerald was most efficient. 
When brought into the presence of such a witness 
the stone exposed his falsity by "undergoing some 
extraordinary change." If one desired to be "rich, 
wise, and honorable" a jacinth should be worn in a 
finger-ring. The jacinth was a very popular gem. 

CONFUSED NOMENCLATURE 

The danger of putting absolute faith in these re- 
markable qualities of gems, and the loop-hole for ex- 
planation in case of failure, lay in the great confusion 

[ 2 97] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

in their nomenclature which existed all through 
ancient and medieval times, and which is still very 
far from being overcome. The diamond is sometimes 
blue in color, and occasionally the sapphire is white; 
and as there were no absolutely certain tests until 
modern times, there was always the chance of wearing 
the wrong gem inadvertently. 

To straighten out this confused nomenclature, which 
is entirely lacking in anything approaching systematic 
arrangement, is one of the first problems to be mastered 
by the student of precious stones. 

"Gems seem to have acquired their names quite 
irrespectively of any system of nomenclature/ ' says 
Claremont, "and with an utter disregard to their 
relationship one with another, as a difference which 
makes a distinction between one set of gems makes 
no distinction at all between another set. 

"For instance, a diamond which is a crystallized 
carbon is always called a diamond, without regard to 
its color, and there are red, yellow, green, blue, and 
black diamonds, besides the white stones so familiar 
to everyone. 

"Yet the gems composed of crystallized alumina 
receive a different name for every color; the red vari- 
ety is called ruby; the blue, sapphire; the yellow, 
oriental topaz; the green, oriental emerald; the purple, 
oriental amethyst; and a whole host of delicate shades 
of every color are known as fancy sapphires. 

"The asteria or star-stone is still another variety 
of this crystallized corundum which occurs in many 
different shades of color, and displays a shimmering, 

[298] 



GEMS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 

glittering, six-pointed star, diverging from the center 
to the edge of the gem, presenting an appearance 
quite unlike any other precious stone. 

"The spinel is a beautiful gem which occurs in al- 
most every color in many different shades, and is known 
as blue, green, purple, or red spinel respectively. The 
red and blue varieties of spinel are not infrequently 
called spinel rubies and spinel sapphires from their 
resemblance to rubies and sapphires." 

From all this it is evident that the nomenclature 
is indeed a confused jargon, for which the cupidity 
of dealers is responsible in many instances. The 
true and the false cat's-eye furnish a case in point. 
The true cat's-eye is a variety of chrysoberyl, varying 
in color from a soft yellow to a rich green, and having 
a glittering streak resembling the iris of the cat. 
There are, however, two varieties of quartz which have 
a somewhat similar appearance, but which lack the lus- 
ter and brilliancy of the true cat's-eye. Commercially, 
these quartz cat's-eyes are of little value, but by giving 
them the name of the more valuable gem, dealers are 
able to get fairly good prices from the unsuspecting, 
who do not know that there are true and false gems 
of the same name. 

Nothing approaching a scientific nomenclature of 
gems could be determined until the development of 
modern chemistry, and an understanding as to the ulti- 
mate particles of matter something like a century ago 
And it will be recalled that one of the first great steps 
in the progress of changing the so-called chemistry 
of previous centuries into an exact science was a sys- 

[ 2 99] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

tematic change in the nomenclature. This revolu- 
tionary change was relatively easy in the case of chem- 
ical terms, since most of them were unknown to the 
generality of people at best, and the scientists were 
eager to accept the new classification. 

The case was very different with the names of gems. 
The names of a great majority of them were known 
even to most very ignorant persons. And as is always 
the case under these circumstances, these popular 
names cling to them, even though the gem experts 
have arranged a new nomenclature that approaches 
at least a scientific classification. 

PRACTICAL TESTS 

It is apparent from the confusion of names, and con- 
fusion of colors of the various gems, where a mistake 
might cost thousands of dollars, that the gem expert 
must have at his command some very accurate tests 
— infallible tests, indeed — to insure against them. The 
first, most valuable, and absolutely essential one 
of these, is that of trained observation — a faculty 
developed only by the handling of countless numbers 
of cut and uncut gems. In this manner, and in this 
manner only, can the expert learn to identify most 
gems without resorting to the tests known to the science 
of mineralogy. In doubtful cases, however, he for- 
tifies his opinion by elaborate tests which have been 
developed by modern science. One of these is af- 
forded by the science of crystallography, the knowl- 
edge of the various-shaped crystals as formed in the 

[300] 



GEMS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 

different crystalline substances, a thorough knowledge of 
this being an essential part of the mental equipment of 
the expert. The mere matter of color, which is of such 
importance in determining the market value of a gem, 
is hardly considered at all in determining its identity, 
at least until several other tests have been made. 

Another important means of identification is the 
test for hardness. The diamond, of course, heads 
the list for resisting attrition, while the sphene is at the 
very bottom, with the other gems ranging in between 
at definitely determined intervals. The mineralogist 
Mohs drew up a scale of hardness many years ago, of 
which the following is a universally accepted modi- 
fication : — 



o Alamandine Garnet 7.3 

o Essonite 7.0 

5 Amethyst 7.0 

5 Kunzite 6.5 

o Peridot 6.4 

o Adularia 6.3 

o Green Garnet 6.0 

o Opal 6.0 

5 Turquoise 6.0 

5 Sphene 5 .0 

5 



Diamond 10 

Sapphire 9 

Ruby 8 

Chrysoberyl 8 

Spinel 8 

Beryl 8 

Topaz 8 

Jargoon 7 . 5 to 8 

Emerald 7 

Tourmaline 7 

Phenakite 7 

Mohs' original scale was : — 

Diamond 10 Apatite 5 

Sapphire 9 Fluorspar 4 

Topaz 8 Calcite 3 

Rock Crystal 7 Rock Salt 2 

Felspar 6 Talc 1 

The test for hardness is made by endeavoring to 
scratch the doubtful gem with each substance of the 
scale, until one is found that will neither scratch nor 
be scratched by it. The stone will then be proved to 
be of the same hardness as the test-stone, and a defi- 
nite step in the identification is accomplished. 

[301] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

In practice it suffices to use the four hardest in the 
original Moris' scale. Bits of these stones are mounted 
in the end of metal pencil-like holders which are con- 
venient for handling. 

Testing a cut gem is a rather delicate operation, 
as a scratch upon one of the facets might damage it 
materially. It is customary, therefore, to scratch the 
test-stone only upon the edge or girdle of the gem. 
The skilled lapidary can tell by the slightest touch 
the effect of his test-stone, so that there is little danger 
of injury. 

Determining the specific gravity, or relative weight 
of a stone, compared with an equal bulk of water, is 
one of the most important steps in the process of iden- 
tification. There are several kinds of apparatus for 
making these tests, but perhaps the simplest and best 
for ordinary use is a series of solutions of known spe- 
cific gravity. The stone to be tested is placed in these 
successively, passing from one end of the scale toward 
the other until a solution is reached in which it just 
floats. By having solutions that are carefully made, 
and a sufficient number so that minute variations can 
be detected, the exact specific gravity of any gem may 
be determined in this manner. 

Three solutions are in general use for testing all 
stones but those of the greatest density. Methylene 
iodide, having a specific gravity at ordinary temper- 
atures of 3.32, but which can be raised to 3.6 by sat- 
urating with iodine, or lowered by the addition of 
benzine or toluene, is an opaque liquid, having a dis- 
agreeable odor; a solution having a gravity of 3.28 can 

[302] 



GEMS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 



be made of cadmium borotungstate, and reduced by 
the addition of water to any desired lower density; 
and a liquid known as Sonstadt's solution, which can 
be made up in solutions of varying density, is an 
aqueous solution of potassium iodide and mercuric 
iodide, and is a deadly corrosive poison. 

Any of these solutions will do for testing the lighter 
gems; and even the diamond may be tested with the 
methylene iodide saturated with iodine or iodoform. 
But for the heavier stones a colorless compound of 
the double nitrate of silver and thallium, a substance 
discovered by the Dutch mineralogist Retgers, which 
melts at a fairly low temperature, having a specific 
gravity of 5., and which maybe reduced to any desired 
density by the addition of warm water, is used. As 
no gem has a density as high as 5., Retger's com- 
pound may be used for determining the specific gravity 
of those stones that are too heavy for testing in the 
other solutions. 

The following list gives the specific gravity of some 
of the principal gem stones : — 



Jargoon 4 

Garnet 4 

Ruby 3 

Asteria 3 

Sapphire 3 

Diamond 3 

Chrysoberyl 3 

Alexandrite 3 

Cat's-eye 3 

Spinel 3 

Topaz 3 



2 

9 to 4 

9 to 4 
9 to 4 

52 

5 to 3 
5 to 3 
5 to 3 
5 to 3 
4 to 3 



Chrysolite 3 

Peridot 3 

Kunzite 3 

Tourmaline .... 2 

Phenakite 2 

Turquoise 2 

Emerald 2 

Amethyst 2 

Moonstone 2 

Opal 2 



3 to 3.5 

3 to 3.5 

2 

9 to 3.3 

9 

6 to 2.8 
6 to 2 . 7 
5 to 2.8 

39 
21 



The action of light upon precious stones, the opti- 
cal properties known as refraction, dispersion, polari- 
zation, and pleochroism, furnish means of identi- 

[303] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

fication that are invaluable. The degree of refraction 
of a ray of light upon entering a precious stone is char- 
acteristic of that particular stone. As a rule this re- 
fraction cannot be determined in the rough stone, 
on account of the unevenness of the surfaces. To cut 
the gem into a prism for the purpose of examination is 
of course out of the question. But the same thing is 
accomplished by selecting two facets of the cut stone 
having the proper angle for the examination, and then 
painting over the other surfaces of the gem. By means 
of the goniometer the refraction and double refraction 
even of stones of greatest refractive power may then 
be determined accurately. 

A little instrument called the dichroscope, so small 
that it may be carried in the vest pocket, is useful for 
determining the pleochroism of gem stones. Pleo- 
chroism is the property of doubly-refractive colored 
gems showing two different colors, or shades, when 
viewed at different angles. The instrument con- 
sists of a metal cylinder "containing a cleavage rhom- 
bohedron of Iceland spar, and possesses an eyepiece 
containing a lens at one end, and a small square aper- 
ture at the other. The eyepiece is held to the eye, 
and the gem to be examined is placed between the 
other end of the cylinder and the light. Two images 
of the square opening at the other end of the dichro- 
scope may then be seen, and they will appear either of 
different colors or of absolutely the same color, accord- 
ing to the nature of the gem stone under examination." 

If the two images are of exactly the same color, no 
matter in what direction the gem is viewed, the stone 

[304] 



GEMS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 

is singly refractive. If the two colors are different, it 
is doubly refractive. The determination of this fact 
is of great importance in identifying a gem. 

THE CUTTING OF PRECIOUS STONES 

Scientific gem-cutting — the knowledge of how to grind 
the facets so as to bring out the greatest amount of 
brilliancy — is a comparatively recent art. Gem stones, 
as we know, have been used for ornaments, amulets, 
or in connection with religious rites, since the begin- 
ning of history; but in ancient times they were worn 
either in the natural state, or cut in a crude manner 
without regard to the arrangement of the refracting 
surfaces. During the latter part of the fifteenth cen- 
tury, however, some time between the years 1460 and 
1480, a gem-cutter of Bruges named Van Berquen 
discovered that by a certain arrangement of the facets 
on a diamond the reflection and dispersion of light 
were greatly increased. The fame of this gem-cutter 
spread quickly, and many valuable gems found their 
way into his establishment to be cut. Bruges became 
the center of the industry and for a time had the mon- 
opoly of the industry; but after the death of Van Ber- 
quen the craftsmen of the guild scattered to other cities, 
so that Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Paris divided the 
trade. Amsterdam and Antwerp still monopolize 
most of the fine work, although France, England, and 
even the United States in recent years, have had large 
gem-cutting establishments. The same methods are 
employed in all these places, and, curiously enough, 

VOL. LX. — 20 [ 305 ] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

the implements and methods used by the diamond- 
cutters to-day are practically identical with those 
employed more than a century ago. 

It requires something more than the mere mechani- 
cal skill of being able to cut a stone into mathematically 
accurate surfaces to be a successful gem-cutter. In- 
deed, this particular mechanical part of the art, al- 
though essential, is by no means the most important. 
Every gem is an individual study to the lapidary, a 
problem of how to produce the maximum brilliancy 
with the minimum loss of weight. The tone or color, 
the shape, quality, diaphaneity, the presence of flaws — 
all have to be taken into account, the complicated men- 
tal equipment of the expert gem-cutter contrasting 
sharply with the simple mechanical equipment needed 
for the actual process of cutting. 

Diamond-cutting, which differs from the cutting of 
all other gems, is described by the master-craftsman, 
Leopold Claremont, as follows: — 

"The process consists of three different operations: 
'bruting,' ' polishing,' and 'cleaving.' 

"The bruting of diamonds consists in rubbing 
two diamonds together in such a way that, by continual 
friction, each can be made to assume the desired shape. 
Each diamond is cemented upon the end of a stick 
or holder about a foot long, and the operator firmly 
holds one end of each stick in either hand. The 
stones are then rubbed or pressed one against another 
over a wooden trough containing a very fine metal 
sieve, into which fall the particles of diamond dust 
rubbed from the stones. In order to obtain a sufficient 

[306] 



GEMS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 

leverage the holders which support the diamonds are 
held against little metal projections on either side of the 
trough. 

"The dust which falls through the metal sieve is 
carefully preserved and used later on for polishing pur- 
poses. The dust is known as ' diamond powder/ 
and has exactly the same appearance as slate-pencil 
dust. Thus, upon the principle of ' diamond cuts 
diamond,' the stones are roughly fashioned by the bruter 
into whatever symmetrical form he has designed them 
to be when finished. 

"Another method of obtaining the same result is 
to rotate one of the diamonds in a lathe and literally 
to ^turn it into the desired shape by means of the other 
stone held against it. 

"The small polished flats, known as facets, with 
which the surface of a diamond is covered, are added 
subsequently, thus forming another part of the process. 

"When the bruter has completed his part of the work, 
the diamonds are handed to an attendant, who is 
seated at a bench in front of two flaring Argand burn- 
ers. Small brass basins, known as 'dops,' which vary 
in size from one to three inches in diameter, are placed 
in the flames, and each dop is filled with a mixture of 
tin and lead in the proportion of one part of tin to two 
of lead. When this metal has assumed a semi-molten 
state, it is fashioned into the shape of a cone by means 
of a large pair of soft-iron tongs, upon the apex of 
which cone one of the bruted diamonds is carefully 
embedded. 

"After the diamond has been carefully adjusted, 

[307] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

the dop containing the cone of hot metal surmounted 
by the diamond is plunged into cold water; the stone 
is thus firmly fixed, the dop forming a kind of holder 
for it. 

"The stone is now ready to be handed to the pol- 
isher, but it is necessary for it to be returned from time 
to time to be unsoldered and readjusted in order that 
a different part of the stone may be brought into prom- 
inence, as it is only possible to work upon that part 
which projects from the metal. This operation is 
repeated continually until the process of polishing is 
completed. The operation of embedding diamonds 
in the metal, as I have described it, is known as 
'soldering.' 

"An ingenious contrivance for obviating the neces- 
sity of using solder consists of a copper holder into 
which the stone is firmly fixed by means of a forked 
clamp, which is pressed against the stone and locked 
in position with a key. The placing of the diamond in 
this holder requires, if possible, more skill than is nec- 
essary to fix the stone in the cone of solder, for it is 
equally imperative that it should be adjusted at the 
correct angle. 

"The polishing of diamonds is a laborious task, 
requiring the greatest accuracy. The craftsmen are 
seated, generally with their backs to the light, in front 
of revolving wheels, which are made of very porous 
cast iron. The wheels turn in a horizontal position at 
about twenty-five hundred revolutions a minute. 
The technical name for a diamond-polishing wheel 
is 'skehV The dops containing the diamonds are 

[308] 



GEMS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 

held by means of iron clamps against the surface of 
the skeif, and kept in position by heavy weights. Four 
of these clamps are manipulated by each operator 
at the same time, and he is able to examine first one 
diamond and then another, occasionally plunging 
each into cold water to prevent the heat generated by 
the friction unsoldering the stone, which would occa- 
sion considerable damage to the gem and loss of val- 
uable time and labor. 

"The surface of the skeif derives its erosive prop- 
erty from the continual application of diamond dust 
mixed with olive oil, and to the dust which comes off 
the -stones undergoing the process. The facets are 
polished on to the diamond by means of pressure 
against this erosive surface, while it revolves at a high 
speed." 

It is usual to cut the diamond into one of three 
forms, the "brilliant," "rose," or "briolette." The 
brilliant form is the one into which most valuable 
gems are cut. The front of a brilliant has an octagonal 
surface in the center, known as the "table," which 
is surrounded by thirty-two facets extending to the 
edge of the stone. The back is pyramidal, having 
twenty-four facets, reaching from the edge, or "girdle" 
of the stone to the apex of the pyramid, on which a 
small facet, the "culet," is cut, parallel with the table. 

The "brilliant" is well named, for the maximum 
brilliancy is developed by this form of cutting. If the 
cutting is perfect, every ray of light entering the upper 
surface of the gem is refracted within the stone and out 
again from the same surface. 

[309] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

The "rose" cutting is only used for small, thin 
stones that cannot be made into brilliants. The back 
of the rose-cut gem is perfectly flat, while the front is 
cut into triangular facets of equal size. 

The "briolette" is the cutting commonly used for 
pendants. Diamonds so cut are pear-shaped, covered 
with triangular facets, and frequently drilled through 
the pointed end. 

It often happens that projecting parts have to be 
removed from rough diamonds before they can be cut 
into the desired form. This is done by a process of 
"cleaving," which, as the name implies, is splitting 
off a portion in the direction of the natural cleavage. 
The natural tendency of the diamond is to divide along 
certain planes parallel to the face of the octahedron. 
To take advantage of this, the craftsman cements 
the diamond to the end of a stick so that the plane of 
cleavage to be used lies in the same direction as the 
length of the stick. The end of the stick is then rested 
against the top of the work- bench and a steel blade held 
against the diamond at the proper point. A sharp 
blow upon the blade will then split the stone easily 
and accurately. To do this successfully requires 
not only great skill, but an accurate knowledge of 
crystallography. 

When it is undesirable or is impracticable to cleave 
a diamond, the gem is sometimes divided by sawing 
with a small, thin metal disk, the edge of which is 
prepared with diamond powder. This sawing is a 
tedious operation, sometimes requiring several weeks, 
and most experts maintain that some of the luster and 

[310] 



GEMS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 

brilliancy of a gem are sacrificed in the process. As 
there seems to be no reasonable explanation of this 
loss of brilliancy, however, it is possible that it is largely 
imaginary. 

In diamond-cutting, in addition to the necessary 
skill, a great amount of force is used; whereas, in 
cutting such stones as sapphires, emeralds, rubies, etc. 
— the " oriental gems," as they are called — a delicacy 
of touch must be acquired which is quite as essential 
to good workmanship as a knowledge of the way the 
surfaces should be cut. The gem to be cut is cemented 
to the end of a piece of hard wood, or ivory, about the 
size, of a lead pencil, so as to be conveniently held in 
the hand. Using this as a handle, the gem-cutter holds 
the stone at any desired angle against a horizontal re- 
volving metal disk covered with some erosive material 
such as diamond dust, emery, or carborundum, which- 
ever is best suited to the nature of the stone to be cut. 
The gem is first fashioned roughly into the shape it is 
ultimately to assume, and all faulty parts are removed. 
The facets are then cut, and the stone is ready for 
polishing. The majority of transparent stones are 
cut in the form of "brilliants," although the emerald 
is the exception, being cut square or oblong in the form 
known as the "step-cut." Such stones as the opal, tur- 
quoise, moonstone, cat's-eye, and star-stone are not cut 
with angular facets, but with curved convex surfaces, 
or "en cabochon," as it is called. 

Just as in the case of the diamond, the cutting proc- 
ess is followed by that of polishing the gem. The 
polishing- wheel may be made of either iron, brass, gun- 

[3"] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

metal, copper, lead, tin, pewter, felt, or one of half 
a dozen other materials that have been found to be the 
best for polishing the particular stone in hand. It 
is smeared with some such material as rotten-stone. 

Cutting reduces the weight of the rough stone very 
materially, as is shown by the following table giving 
the loss in weight of some of the famous diamonds: — 

Name Original Weight Weight after Cutting 

Carats Carats 

Excelsior 970 239 

Great Mogul 560 279 

Orloff 400 193 

Koh-i-noor 393 186 

Star of the South 250 125 

The original weight of some of these gems can only 
be estimated. The carat is the unit of weight for 
precious stones, and is about 3.2 grains. 

DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH 

Diamonds crystallize in the cubic system and gen- 
erally occur in the octahedron, or rhombic dodecahe- 
dron form. Sometimes they have the appearance of 
being spherical, and frequently they are twinned. 

At the present time the South African mines are the 
world's chief source of diamonds. The diamond- 
bearing material of these mines is found in fissures in 
the rocks supposed to be of volcanic origin, which have 
been filled in with the material containing the diamonds 
at a later period. This diamond-bearing earth is 
called "Kimberlite," and occurs in three distinct 
layers with three degrees of hardness. The lowest of 
these is known as "hard bank," which, as its name indi- 

[3^] 



GEMS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 

cates, is very hard. Above the "hard bank" is the 
softer "blue ground," so named from its bluish color. 
And above this the "yellow ground," greasy to the 
touch, soft, friable, and yellowish in color. Yellow 
ground and blue ground are supposed to be decom- 
posed stages of the hard bank, the different colors 
being due to the presence of different iron oxides. 

Some of these diamond-bearing veins can be worked 
from the surface in the early stages of mining, but if 
the work is to be carried on extensively it is necessary 
to sink shafts and tunnel just as in other subterranean 
mining. The yellow ground, being soft and friable, 
may frequently be worked as soon as it is brought to 
the surface ; and it is possible to work even the hardest 
material by crushing. It is more economical and satis- 
factory, however, to spread this hard material out in 
thin layers and allow it to be acted upon by the ele- 
ments. At Kimberley there are great fields, or "floors," 
covering many square miles which have been spe- 
cially prepared for this purpose. The blue ground 
is spread over this to a depth of two and a half feet, 
and allowed to disintegrate, the process taking from 
a few weeks to two years. Even then it is sometimes 
necessary to reduce the harder masses in the crushing- 
mill. 

From the floors the material goes to the washing- 
plant, where the heavier materials are separated from 
the lighter ones by complicated washing and agitating 
machinery. This heavier material containing the dia- 
monds is passed on to machines known as pulsators, 
which concentrate and drain the diamond-bearing 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

gravel, from which the gems are either picked out 
by hand, or removed by a machine called the "greaser." 
This machine consists of a shaking-table containing 
a series of steps, each step covered with a layer of 
grease. As the gravel containing the diamonds is 
washed over these, the gems adhere to the grease, 
while the pieces of gravel pass on. To insure against 
possible oversight the gravel is often picked over once 
or twice by hand before going to the greaser. The 
diamonds are then cleaned by a mixture of sulphuric 
and nitric acid, sorted, and are ready for the market. 

While the great mines, such as have just been de- 
scribed, produce ninety-nine per cent, of the yearly 
diamond output, those that make up the remaining 
one per cent, are still collected by the primitive method 
of washing by hand. The rivers coming from the re- 
gions of diamond-bearing earths bring down the detritus 
from the rocks ; and among the gravel in their beds 
fine diamonds are found periodically by the solitary 
washers who are always at work somewhere along 
the streams. These streams are outside the lands, and 
beyond the control, of the Kimberley and De Beers 
mine owners, and the diamonds found in them, curi- 
ously enough, are superior to those taken from the mines. 

The discovery of diamonds in South Africa was made 
seventeen years after the rinding of gold in California ; 
and the story of this discovery, with the resulting ex- 
tensive change of the political map of the world, makes 
a thrilling chapter in world history. It begins with 
the children of a certain Dutch farmer named Jacobs, 
who lived near Hopetown between Cape Town and 

tan] 



GEMS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 

Kimberley. These children, playing in the shallow 
water of a little tributary of the Orange River, gathered 
handfuls of pretty stones from time to time, which they 
took to their home as playthings. One of these stones, 
of peculiar shape and very bright, attracted the notice 
of their mother. She knew nothing of precious stones, 
but surmised that this one might have some market 
value. She made no attempt to dispose of the stone, 
however, and had all but forgotten it, until some time 
later during the course of the conversation with an 
old friend of the family, Schalk Van Niekirk, who 
was paying a visit. Then it developed that the chil- 
dren, tiring of their plaything, had lost it somewhere 
about the yard; and it was not until after a long and 
diligent search that it was finally found in the garden. 

Little did the Jacobses suspect that their successful 
search would change the history and map of South 
Africa. 

They did believe, however, that the stone had some 
value, and so did their visitor, who offered to buy it. 
The Jacobses would not hear of this — this probable 
imposition on an old friend — but they gave Van Nie- 
kirk the stone, telling him jokingly to "sell it and make 
his fortune." In the end he carried out their instruc- 
tions to the letter. 

The story of the peregrinations of the little stone for 
the next few months reads like a fairy tale. Van 
Niekirk turned the stone over to his friend, O'Reilly, 
who carried it with him to Hopetown, where everyone 
laughed at him for supposing that it was valuable. 
But even the most skeptical were obliged to admit 

[315] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

that it was beautiful, and a most remarkable stone 
in many ways. For example, it would cut glass as no 
other stone in the country would do; and the enthu- 
siastic O'Reilly cut his name in more than one window- 
pane in Hopetown for the amusement of groups of 
spectators. Those who had any knowledge of min- 
erals supposed that the little crystal was simply an 
unusually pretty, but valueless, rock-crystal. 

Failing to get any definite information in Hope- 
town about the gem, O'Reilly sent it in an ordinary 
gummed envelope through the mail to a Dr. Atherstone, 
a mineralogist of Grahamstown. Dr. Atherstone at 
once suspected its identity, but being in doubt, he sent 
for his friend Bishop Ricard, who knew something 
about gems. After making exhaustive tests the two 
men reached the conclusion that the stone must be a 
diamond, although such gems had never been found 
in South Africa. Such a momentous discovery needed 
most authoritative confirmation, and at the suggestion 
of the Colonial Secretary, the Hon. R. Southey, the 
stone was sent to the Paris Exhibition of 1867, then 
just opening. Here it was examined and admired by 
savants from all parts of the world, who without excep- 
tion pronounced it a diamond. It was finally sold 
to Sir Philip Woodhouse, at that time Governor of 
Cape Colony, for a sum amounting to about twenty- 
five hundred dollars. The gem weighed a little more 
than twenty-one carats. 

Whether the little finders of this first South African 
diamond found more of its brothers and sisters and sold 
them for fabulous sums, and became wealthy as princes, 

[316] 



GEMS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 

as they certainly would have done in any good fairy 
tale, does not appear. But it is certain that their 
friend Van Niekirk found other gems, and bought 
still others from the ignorant natives. One of these 
he sold in Hope town for over fifty thousand dollars; 
and it would have brought him much more had he sent 
it to London. This stone is now the famous "Star 
of South Africa." 



OTHER SOURCES OF DIAMONDS; PRACTICAL USES 

Until the opening of the South African diamond 
mines, India and Brazil were the chief source of these 
gems, with Borneo, British Guiana, and Australia 
furnishing the remainder. India had supplied the 
world for centuries, most of the famous diamonds 
coming from that country. On account of certain 
restrictive laws, however, the Indian mines have never 
been worked on such extensive scale as the South 
African. 

Diamonds were discovered in Brazil in 1728 and have 
been mined there ever since. The stones found are of 
fine quality, and, like the Indian gems, are considered 
more valuable than those coming from South Africa. 

The diamonds of Borneo have great depth of color, 
and bring good prices; but the industry is not devel- 
oped to any such extent as in South Africa. The Aus- 
tralian gems are very hard and brilliant, but of such 
small size that they can only be used for certain pieces 
of jewelry. The stones from British Guiana are of 
good size and quality, but as the mining industry is 

[317] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

only recently developed there this country does not 
compete at all with the older sources of supply. 

Certain straight-laced, Puritanically minded per- 
sons who are inclined to condemn the diamond as a 
useless bauble, must find some satisfaction in the 
knowledge that this gem is a most useful — indeed, an 
indispensable — substance for certain mechanical pur- 
poses. The most important of these is in forming 
the cutting surface of the diamond drill for use in all 
kinds of mining operations. The diamond drill is, 
to the miner, what the compass is to the mariner. 
For making it the imperfectly crystallized or otherwise 
defective stones, unsuitable for cutting into gems, 
and which are known as "boart," are used. Such 
pieces, when set in the end of a steel tube which is ro- 
tated by machinery, make a drill that will cut its way 
through the hardest rock. Not only cut through, 
but bring to the surface pieces of the rock through 
which the drill is passing, so that the miner, working 
many feet above, can keep himself informed as to the 
nature of the successive strata beneath him almost as 
well as if the intervening layers were removed. He 
can locate an ore-bearing stratum, or vein of coal, 
find its exact thickness, and determine its quality, 
without the laborious, expensive, and frequently dis- 
appointing process of sinking a shaft. Thus the ill- 
favored and deformed relative of the useless bauble 
of fashion plays an important part in a most important 
industry, and acts for the community at large, and in 
this way helps to remove the stigma from the name of 
its more beautiful and favored sisters. 

[318] 



GEMS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 



THE RUBY AND ITS ALLIES 

The ruby has been called "the most coveted of 
Nature's treasures," since it represents a greater amount 
of wealth in a smaller bulk than any other precious 
stone. It is one of the varieties of the mineral corun- 
dum, which ranks very high in the scale of hardness, 
and is a most useful substance for abrasive purposes. 
In the opaque forms corundum enters largely into the 
composition of emery, while its translucent forms are 
gems having the widest range of colors and shades. 
Thus the ruby is red corundum; sapphire is blue 
corundum; "oriental emerald" is green corundum; 
"oriental topaz" yellow corundum; and "oriental 
amethyst" purple corundum. To the chemist these 
stones are identical, differing only in an infinitesimal 
amount of coloring matter; but to the prospector, 
miner, and dealer, this minute difference in coloring 
matter means the difference between day -wages and 
boundless riches. 

While ordinary varieties of corundum occur plen- 
tifully all over the world, the variety which we know 
as the ruby is extremely rare. Rubies of inferior 
quality, and in small quantities, have been found in 
several places, but the three great sources of the gems 
to-day are Burma, Siam, and Ceylon. Burmese rubies 
are considered the most valuable, since a greater num- 
ber of them have the "pigeon-blood" color — the color 
of the blood of a freshly killed pigeon — which is most 
highly prized by the connoisseur. 

[319] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

For many centuries the location of the Burmese 
ruby-mines was a secret closely guarded by the mon- 
archs of that country, who held them as royal posses- 
sions. It is said that from time to time adventurers 
had attempted to locate them, but none of these ever 
returned to tell of success or failure; and it was not 
until Great Britain annexed the country that the exact 
location of these mines became known to the outside 
world. Needless to say, shortly after this had been 
accomplished, a company was formed to work the 
mines and introduce modern mining methods. 

These methods are most simple, and differ from the 
older ones very largely in the matter of replacing hand- 
labor with machinery. The ruby-bearing material 
is mined, brought to the surface, and washed in ma- 
chines very similar to those used in diamond washing. 

The Siamese rubies rank next to the Burmese, but 
are distinctly less valuable, and usually darker in 
color. Those of Ceylon, on the other hand, are much 
lighter in color, limpid and brilliant, and even less 
valuable than the Siamese. France alone seems to 
appreciate their beauty and artistic qualities, and most 
of them are marketed in that country. 

The sapphire, the corundum gem stone next in 
importance to the ruby, is of a peculiar interest to 
Americans, since it is the most important precious 
stone produced in the United States. Australia, 
Kashmir, Siam, Burma, and Ceylon also continue to 
furnish sapphires in considerable quantities, but the 
quantity and quality of the Montana gems have re- 
cently rather overshadowed those from the other sources 

[320] 



GEMS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 

of supply. The coveted " cornflower blue" sapphires, 
which were formerly found only in Burma, Ceylon, 
and Siam, are now found in the Montana mines; and 
the uniformity of color and peculiar brilliancy of the 
American sapphires have made them favorites with 
many European dealers. 

For many years sapphires of pale tints of yellow, 
pink, and bluish-green have been found in the Mon- 
tana gold-mining region, but these stones have very 
little commercial value. In 1895, however, blue sap- 
phires of fine quality were discovered, quite by acci- 
dent. A gold-mining company in the Judith River 
district, after installing an expensive plant, found that 
the gravel contained such a low percentage of gold 
that it would not pay the expense of mining and work- 
ing. But certain blue stones were found in the sluice- 
boxes, and were soon identified as sapphires. The 
gems occur in a dike of trap-rock which cuts through 
the limestone in this region. This dike is several miles 
long, showing as a depression covered with vegetation 
running through the limestone ledges. Pocket-gophers 
find it an excellent place for their subterranean opera- 
tions, and in the mounds thrown up by these little 
miners many valuable gems have been found. The 
animals follow the course of the trap-rock, since the 
surrounding rocks are too hard for burrowing, so that 
the mounds they throw up serve as a guide to the pros- 
pectors in locating the sapphire-bearing vein. 

The material in which these sapphires are found 
varies in hardness in different localities and positions. 
A hard clay, not unlike the diamond-bearing clay of 
vol. ix. — 21 [ 321 ] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

the South African mines, furnishes a large proportion 
of the gems. It is worked by cutting and disintegrat- 
ing by powerful streams of water, reducing it to a loose 
mud, which is then washed through a long series of 
wooden boxes. Across the bottom of these boxes, 
strips of iron two and a half inches high are placed 
and against these the sapphires find lodgment, while the 
lighter particles of gravel are washed away. 

Besides the blue sapphire, which is of course the 
most highly prized gem of the sapphire group, there 
are the yellow sapphire, known as the "oriental 
topaz," the purple sapphire, known as the "oriental 
amethyst," the green sapphire, known as the "oriental 
emerald," and the "fancy sapphires" of almost all 
shades and tints. None of these stones has any very 
great commercial value as compared with the corun- 
dum in the form of rubies or blue sapphires. Yet 
many of them are beautiful and brilliant stones. Un- 
fortunately they resemble other cheaper forms of 
stones, and this, with the caprices of fashion, seems 
to keep them from merited popularity. Many of these 
gems are found in Montana associated with the more 
valuable blue sapphires; and Burma, Siam,and the other 
sapphire -producing countries furnish great quantities of 
them for the cheaper grades of jewelry. 

There is still another form of corundum gem, the 
asteria, or star-stone, which is one of the most in- 
teresting of stones. It is a semi-transparent stone, 
which when cut with a convex rounded surface which 
lies at an exactly right angle to the principal axis of 
the crystal, shows a six-pointed, shimmering star of 

[322] 



GEMS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 

great brilliancy. As the other portions of the stone 
remain lusterless and dull the contrast is very marked 
and the effect very beautiful. 

These star-stones vary in color, although the rays 
from the star are always the same. When red they are 
called "star rubies," and when blue, "star- sapphires." 
Very few, if any, good specimens of these stones are 
found in the American sapphire regions, Ceylon, 
Burma, and Kashmir supplying the market. 

The explanation of the appearance of the star in 
the star-stone lies, of course, in the structure of the 
crystal. When cut at right angles to the principal 
axis, peculiar striations and markings parallel to the 
face of the prism are found. These consist of innu- 
merable minute cavities, forming three lines which cross 
one another in the center at an angle of sixty degrees, 
producing the six-pointed star. 

Only second in importance to the corundum stones 
— if, indeed, they are not quite as important as gems — 
are the beryls, which include the emerald and the 
aquamarine. Chemically all these stones are prac- 
tically identical; but here, as in the case of the corun- 
dum gems, the infinitesimal difference in the color- 
ing matter makes such an enormous difference in the 
commercial value of the individual stones. The com- 
bination of elements that enter into the formation of 
beryl is: — 

Silica 68 . o 

Alumina 18.3 

Glucina 12.2 

Magnesia 0.8 

Soda 0.7 

The color of the emerald is due to the presence of a 

[3 2 3] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

minute quantity of oxide of chromium. Fine emeralds 
are frequently alluded to as "Spanish emeralds," giving 
the natural impression that Spain was the source of these 
very fine gems. In point of fact there are no emerald 
mines in the Spanish peninsula, and there never have 
been. But there were great quantities of emeralds 
kept as ornamental trinkets by the natives of Peru 
at the time of the Spanish conquest, and like almost 
everything else of value there, they soon found their 
way into the hands of the Spanish nobility. For many 
years, therefore, the finest specimens of emeralds were 
in Spain, and hence the term " Spanish emerald" was 
a presumptive guarantee of fine quality. 

Emeralds have always been found in Africa, and there 
were Egyptian mines many centuries before the Chris- 
tian era. Asia, North America, and Australia also 
produce the gems in small quantities. But the princi- 
pal source is still the South American continent, 
Colombia and Peru being the centers of supply. The 
mines of Muzo and Coscuez in Colombia, discovered 
about 1550, still supply the world with the greatest 
quantity, and finest quality, of emeralds. They are 
found in limestone and slate, occurring in lodes or 
as isolated crystals. 

A somewhat less important group of gems, whose 
range of colors equals the corundum gems, are those of 
the mineral spinel. They are not as brilliant stones 
as the corundum or beryl group, but the finest speci- 
mens are sometimes only slightly inferior. In proof 
of this is the fact that the " Black Prince's ruby" in 
the crown jewels of Great Britain, which was until 

[324] 



GEMS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 

recently supposed to be a ruby, is said to be a red 
spinel. 

The finest spinels are found in Brazil, India, and Cey- 
lon. Those somewhat inferior in quality are mined 
in Burma, Siam, and Afghanistan from limestone, 
gneiss, or volcanic rocks. A certain number have 
been found in the United States, mostly in New York 
and New Jersey. 

Reference was made in the early pages of this chapter 
to the chrysoberyl, one variety of which is that re- 
markable gem, the cat's-eye. Quite as extraordinary 
as this kind of chrysoberyl is another variety known as 
alexandrite. This gem, so called because of its dis- 
covery in the Ural Mountains on the birthday of Czar 
Alexander II, has the remarkable quality of changing 
color from a rich green by daylight to a raspberry red 
by artificial light. Only the better quality of gems 
give this distinct change of color, and as these are rare, 
and difficult to obtain, this gem has never had the 
vogue that it probably would otherwise have attained. 

Quite as remarkable, but much more common, are 
the group of gem stones which have the property of 
dichroism — appearing in different colors when viewed 
from different directions. The tourmalines, having 
a wide range of colors and shades, are the best exam- 
ples of this. Thus a crystal of tourmaline when viewed 
along the length of the crystal may be almost black, 
while the same crystal if viewed across may be a bright 
green, or some other color quite as striking. The 
finest tourmalines come from Brazil, but more or less 
valuable gems are found on every continent. 

[325] 



INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

We have not space here for consideration individually 
of each of the principal precious stones, but in another 
place will be found tables giving the composition, 
location, and characteristics, etc., of the more impor- 
tant. The subject of artificial gems and imitation 
gems will be considered in a moment. But before 
beginning this subject of growing importance, a word 
should be said as to the methods employed by unscrupu- 
lous gem dealers of using thin layers of true gem stones, 
in connection with colored glass, as a veneer for making 
what appear to be very good gems. These are made 
in two forms, and are known to the trade as " doub- 
lets" and "triplets," respectively. Doublets are made 
by cementing a thin piece of some gem stone over a 
paste, or glass, backing of the same color, so that the 
top of the stone above the setting responds to the tests 
of the real gem. By testing the under side of the stone 
the fraud is revealed. Triplets are made by placing 
thin layers of a gem stone both front and back of 
the paste, so that the glass is sandwiched in between, 
and can only be detected at the edges, which are usually 
carefully covered by the setting. 

It is possible to alter the color of certain stones by 
the careful application of heat, the process being known 
technically as " pinking," or " burning." This is a 
perfectly legitimate process, however, and enables 
the jeweler to convert certain topazes, for example, 
into gems of coveted pink color. Pink topazes 
occur very rarely in Nature ; but as they are seen very 
frequently on the market it may be taken for granted 
that most of those offered in the shops have been 

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GEMS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 

"pinked." By the same process the purple amethyst 
can be changed to a mahogany-brown stone of great 
beauty; and brown zircons and brown quartz can be 
made colorless. There is great danger of ruining the 
gem during the transformation process, which consists 
in burying it in sand and heating to the desired tem- 
perature, afterward allowing it to cool very gradually. 

ARTIFICIAL GEMS 

The production of artificial diamonds has long been 
the dream of the experimenter. The conditions 
under which diamonds are produced in nature are 
pretty well understood ; and on a small scale they have 
for some time been duplicated in the laboratory, and 
even — though here quite unwittingly — in the workshop. 
Nothing more is necessary than to reduce carbon — 
a bit of coal or graphite or lampblack — to a liquid 
condition, and maintain it under great pressure until 
it cools, when crystals of carbon will separate from the 
liquid just as crystals of quartz or sugar or salt separate 
from their respective solutions under like conditions; 
and these crystals of carbon constitute true diamonds. 
But the difficulty lies in the extreme reluctance with 
which carbon assumes the liquid state. Unlike most 
other substances, it volatilizes directly from the solid 
state under ordinary conditions of pressure — the tem- 
perature at which the change occurs being about 3600 
degrees Fahrenheit. Under pressure, to be sure, it 
will liquefy; but the pressure required, according to 
Professor Dewar's experiments, is about fifteen tons 

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INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

to the square inch. In the depths of the earth, such 
a weight may be applied by the weight of geological 
strata ; but how may it be obtained in the laboratory ? 

A most ingenious answer to this question was found 
by the late Prof. Moissan of Paris. It is based on the 
well-known fact that the metal iron has the peculiar 
property, which it shares with a few other substances, 
including water, of expanding instead of contracting 
as it passes from the liquid to the solid state ; combined 
with the further fact that liquid iron absorbs or dissolves 
carbon, much as water does sugar, in increased quantity 
with increased temperature. Moissan filled an iron 
receptacle with pure iron and pure carbon obtained 
by calcining sugar; closed it tightly and heated it rapidly 
to the highest attainable temperature in an electric 
furnace — bringing it to a degree of heat at which the 
lime furnace begins to melt, and the iron to volatilize 
in clouds. The dazzling fiery receptacle, before it 
has had time to melt, is lifted out and plunged instantly 
into cold water until its outer surface is cooled and 
hardened, thus forming a shell of iron that holds the 
interior contents in an inflexible grip. As this molten 
interior matter cools, the carbon separates from the 
iron solvent in liquid drops; and under the almost un- 
imaginable stress of expansion of the solidifying iron, 
these liquid drops become solid crystals — of diamond. 

By a long slow process the iron ingot and the various 
impurities are dissolved and fused away, until nothing 
remains but the pure diamond crystals; and these 
are but fragments of the crystals originally obtained, 
which, having been formed in a condition of great inter- 

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GEMS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 

nal stress, break on the smallest provocation — a phenom- 
enon also observed sometimes in the case of the natural 
diamond. The mere liberation from the intense pressure 
under which the gems are formed appears to be enough 
to cause them to fly into fragments. The fragments them- 
selves, however, have all the characteristic stability and 
hardness of ordinary diamonds. 

The conditions which may thus be established in 
the laboratory are duplicated to some extent in the 
commercial manufacture of certain kinds of steel, 
which are cooled from the molten state under intense 
hydraulic pressure; and steel so made may actually 
contain microscopic diamonds, as Professor Rosel, 
of the University of Bern, has demonstrated. It has 
even been suggested that the hardness of steel may be 
due, in part at least, to the presence of diamond par- 
ticles everywhere in its substance. Ordinarily these 
diamond crystals, where they exist in steel, are almost 
infinitesimal in size; but in one case, in a block of 
steel and slag from a furnace in Luxembourg, a clear 
crystalline diamond was found measuring about one- 
fiftieth of an inch across — this being the largest arti- 
ficial diamond yet recorded. 

The theory of diamond-making being so well under- 
stood, it may hardly be doubted that the manufacture 
of these gems will some day be placed on a commercial 
basis — the manufacture, that is to say, of veritable dia- 
monds, indistinguishable by any tests whatsoever from 
the products of the mines; this being true of the minute 
diamonds produced in Professor Moissan's furnace 
and in the steel ingots. It would be futile to predict 

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INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

how soon diamonds of marketable size may be pro- 
duced; but in the mean time the similar problem of 
manufacturing relatively large gems of other kinds — 
rubies, sapphires, oriental emeralds, the oriental 
amethyst, and the oriental topaz — has yielded its 
full secrets to science. Artificial gems of these various 
sorts are already on the market, in actual competition 
with the natural gems, the properties of which they 
duplicate rather than imitate. 

Just as the brilliant diamond is only a particular 
state of so familiar and inexpensive a substance as 
carbon, so these sister gems — some of them even ex- 
ceeding the diamond in value weight for weight — have 
for their basis, as already noted, the metal aluminum, 
which, as is well known, is a most familiar constituent 
of the soil everywhere. They are, in short, merely 
crystalline forms of the clayey earth, alumina — a 
compound of aluminum and oxygen. If no coloring 
matter is present, this crystal is called a white sapphire. 
Usually, however, a trace of some chromium or cobalt 
salt is present, and then the gem becomes a true sapphire, 
a ruby, an amethyst, an oriental emerald, or a topaz, 
according to color. The presence of a small percent- 
age of magnesium and of sodium may greatly mar the 
hardness and hence the real value of the stone, without 
greatly altering its appearance to casual inspection. 
A large proportion of the alleged rubies on the market, 
for example, have this defect, and would not be classed 
by legitimate dealers as true rubies, but as " spinel" 
or "balas" rubies. The ordinary amethyst of the mar- 
ket bears even less resemblance to the true oriental 

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GEMS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 

amethyst, being merely a quartz crystal and of far too 
little value to merit attention from the manufacturer 
of artificial gems. 

Gems of the true sapphire order are manufactured 
by bringing alumina to a liquid state, by the agency of 
extreme heat; the gems crystallize from the solution 
on cooling. Fortunately it is not necessary, as in the 
case of the diamond, to have the operation performed 
under pressure; hence the relative facility with which 
these gems may be produced. A practical difficulty is 
found, however, in the fact that the crystals tend to 
take the form of thin plates, unsuited to the purpose 
of the gem-cutter. This is the chief reason why arti- 
ficial rubies and emeralds have not long been familiar 
in commerce, for it is almost seventy years since the 
first true rubies were made in the laboratory. The ear- 
liest successful experiments in this direction were made 
by Gaudin in 1837, who produced true rubies of mi- 
croscopic size. Ten years later Ebelmen produced the 
white sapphire and the ruby-like spinel; but it was 
not until 1877 that MM. Fremy and Feil succeeded in 
making crystals of a size from which gems could be 
cut; and still another quarter of a century elapsed 
before a method of manufacture was devised that could 
put the enterprise upon a commercial basis. 

The original experimenters, and numerous succeed- 
ing ones, adopted the method of fusing alumina in the 
presence of some substance, such as borax or barium 
fluoride, that would act as a solvent. As the solvent 
evaporated, the alumina crystals were deposited, 
their color being predetermined partly by the quantity 

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INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

of chromium salts placed in the original mixture, and 
partly by the degree of heat employed. But the one 
great difficulty about the shape of the crystals long 
proved insuperable. It was finally met, however, 
through the ingenuity of M. Verneuil, a Frenchman 
already well known for his experiments in this field, 
who devised a method by which the alumina powder 
— prepared originally from a solution of common 
alum — is sifted down a tube through an oxy-hydrogen 
flame and, thus fused, is deposited drop by drop, or 
more properly as a spray, on a fixed point below the 
flame, where it builds up a pear-shaped crystal pre- 
cisely as stalagmites are built up by dripping water 
in a cave. Unfortunately the gem thus formed breaks 
into fragments when touched; but the fragments are 
still of marketable size ; and true rubies and sapphires 
thus manufactured have now entered the field of com- 
merce. 

Rubies and sapphires so formed duplicate absolutely 
the desirable qualities of the natural gems; and their 
production must obviously affect the market value of 
these gems, as well as the mining industry through 
which they are obtained. The public should be 
warned, however, against accepting as "true artifi- 
cial" rubies, emeralds, and sapphires, the numberless 
glass imitations that will continue to flood the market 
so long as these jewels retain their popularity. 



[333] 



APPENDIX 

REFERENCE LIST AND NOTES 
CHAPTER I 

AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 

(pp. 31-32.) The quotation is from the "History of Cotton 
Manufacture," by Edward Baines, Jr., London (not dated). 
This work gives a valuable account of the spinning- and weaving- 
industries. The author leans towards the opinion that Arkwright 
may have gained the idea of his revolutionary spinning-process 
from the earlier patent of Lewis Paul. He advances testimony 
of convincing character to show that Paul (possibly in association 
with his partner, John Wyatt) actually invented a mechanism of 
similar type to that which afterwards made Arkwright famous. 
It is not at all in doubt, however, that it was Arkwright and not 
Paul who was responsible for making the mechanism a com- 
mercial success; therefore, according to the usual standards by 
which such matters are adjudged in the public mind, Arkwright 
must always be given the honors of the inventor. He seems to 
have been a man of such ingenuity that almost every mechanism 
with which he had to deal was improved at his hands. 

CHAPTER II 

THE MANUFACTURE OF TEXTILES 

(pp. 40-41.) The origin of weaving. The quotation is from 
"Cotton Weaving: Its Development, Principles, and Practice," 
London, 1895, pp. 16, 17. 

(pp. 56-57.) Knitting-Machine. The description is taken from 

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INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

the admirable summary of the development of textile machinery 
given in the Catalogue of the Victoria and Albert Museum, 
London. 

CHAPTER III 

THE STORY OF COSTUMES 

(p. 66.) Fashion versus Law. The quotation is from "A 
History of English Dress," by Georgiana Hill, 2 vols., New York, 
1893. 

(pp. 67-68.) Philip IV and the ruff. The quotations are from 
"The Court of Philip IV," by Martin Hume, New York, 1907. 

(pp. 74-75.) Relating to hoop skirts. The quotation is from 
"A History of English Dress," by Georgiana Hill, New York, 
1893. 

CHAPTER IV 

THE SEWING-MACHINE 

(p. 88 and pp. 93-94.) The claims of Howe. The quotations 
are from a work published in New York in i860, presenting the 
case argued by George Gifford, Esq., in favor of Elias Howe, 
Jr., for an extension of his patents for sewing-machines. In 
the course of the proceedings it was testified that Howe's original 
machine, operating in 1845, was tested as to speed against the 
hand-work of five girls, and beat them. Again, that the same 
machine was operated at the rate of 280 stitches per minute, 
doing good sewing. Evidence was also adduced to show that 
sewing by hand would not equal 40 stitches per minute; hence 
that Howe's machine did work equal to that of seven hand-workers. 
"It must be borne in mind that this is the work and capability 
of the machine as Howe originally constructed it, and of the first 
machine he made. It was, therefore, the work of his invention, un- 
improved, unaltered, and untouched by others." 

(pp. 98-102.) The Development of the Sewing-Machine. 
The quotation is from the Twelfth Census Report of the United 
States, 1900, published Washington, 1902, vol. X., pp. 415-417. 

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APPENDIX 

CHAPTER V 

CLOTHING THE EXTREMITIES 

Material for this chapter is largely drawn from the article on 
Boots and Shoes, by Mr. George C. Houghton, and the article on 
Leather Gloves and Mittens, by Mr. Arthur L. Hunt, both in the 
Twelfth Census Report of the United States, Washington, 1903. 
The quotation beginning at p. 108 is from Mr. Houghton's article, 
as stated in the text ; and the section on the manufacture of gloves 
is largely based on Mr. Hunt's exposition of the subject. 

CHAPTER VI 

THE EVOLUTION OF THE DWELLING HOUSE 

(pp. 134-136.) Habitations of the Cave Dwellers. The quota- 
tion is from "Les premiers Hommes et les Temps Historiques," 
by the Marquis de Nadaillac. Translated by Nancy Bell, New 
York, 1906. 

CHAPTER VII 

THE MODERN SKYSCRAPER 

(pp. 179-180.) Statistics as to wind pressure. The quotation 
is from The Scientific American, December 15, 1908, p. 401. 

CHAPTER VIII 

ARTIFICIAL STONE, OR CONCRETE 

(pp. 185-186.) Concrete Blocks. The quotation is from "The 
Manufacture of Concrete Blocks," by H. H. Rice, New York, 
1906. 

(pp. 198-199 and 200-201.) Concrete as a Preservative of 
Iron. The quotation is from "Reinforced Concrete," by Charles 
F. Marsh and William Dunn, New York 1907, p. 7. 

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INGENUITY AND LUXURY 

(pp. 209-212.) The Construction of a Concrete Building. The 
quotation is from The Scientific American, Feb. 15, 1908, pp. 109- 
110. 

CHAPTER X 

THE PRODUCTS OF CLAY AND FIRE 

Much valuable information for this chapter has been obtained 
from " Notes on the Manufacture of Earthenware," by Ernest 
Albert Sandeman, London, 1901, and quotations on pp. 239 and 
249-251 are from that work. 

CHAPTER XI 

GLASS AND GLASS-MAKING 

(p. 283.) Glass a luxury in the Middle Ages and in the Early 
Modern Period. The quotation is from " Wonders of Glass- 
Making in all Ages," by Alexandre Sauzey, New York, 1875. 

(pp. 284-285.) The Composition of Glass. The quotation is 
from "La Manufacture de St. Gobain," by M. A. Cochin. 

CHAPTER XII 

GEMS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 

(pp. 306-309.) Diamond-Cutting. The quotation is from 
"The Gem-Cutter's Craft," by Leopold Claremont, London, 
1906, pp. 40-46, from which work information of great value has 
been derived for other portions of this chapter. 



[336] 



